The Thingy
by Star the Foxhound
Summary: When my friend and I discover a way to transport ourselves into any world of our choosing, from any movie, book or show, we travel to bring back a few of our favorite characters from the movie Gettysburg, and from Hetalia.
1. Chapter 1

She sat down on the edge of her bed, staring at the wall for a moment. There wasn't all that much to do, and no one had been online so she had gone upstairs and pulled out her ipod, wondering what she would do next.

Then she heard a ringing from the hallway and she stood up and went to answer it. "Hello?"

"BETHANY!!!!" Kate shouted down the phone line. She was in a good mood. A very good mood. If it was physically possible, she would have jumped down the phone line and hugged her friend. "Okay, okay, so you know that time I told you to let me know if you managed to create some sort of inter-dimensional thingy that could get you into movies or books or stuff?! Well, guess what?" Kate didn't pause long enough to let her friend answer, but almost immediately went on. "I managed to make one of them!"

"What?" The boredom of a few minutes ago vanished in the blink of an eye as Star's eyes lit up with excitement. "It can go into any book or movie? Any at all?"

"Yeah! Totally! I just tested it a few minutes ago. Word of advice: Don't startle someone who controls fire. It's a bad idea." After a second's pause, Kate added, "Don't worry, I'm okay."

"Can it take us to Gettysburg?" Star asked eagerly, the thought coming in her head as soon as Kate said 'yeah'. If there was anyplace in the entire world that she wanted to be, it was with Lo Armistead.

Kate paused for a minute, after the slight squeak from her friend, and sighed. "Okay, I just know you're thinking about Lo or Hancock or Armistead or one of those guys who I can never tell apart..."

"Lo and Armistead are the same person," Star said, grinning. "And Win Hancock is his best friend, and is like a brother to him. I want to see Lo though! More then anyone! Can we go there, please, I can be over at your house in a matter of minutes!"

"Same person? Huh. No wonder I can't tell them apart." Kate paused for a minute, for no real reason other than to annoy her friend. "Yeah, sure. Come on over."

"I'll see you in a few minutes!" Star quickly put down the phone and ran to her room, grapping her Confederate uniform jacket and throwing it on, along with her hat as she took off from the house, down the street, over the hill and rang the doorbell of Kate's house, gasping for breath after having run the entire way.

"One minute and fifty-eight seconds, girl," Kate said to her friend, opening the door. "You might want to breathe after that run." Suddenly shifting back to her good mood, she added, "Okay, okay, so... you should probably control the thing for Gettysburg. I'd probably get distracted and end up in some pocket dimension or something." She ran over to the table and showed Bethany the device. "It goes on your arm, like this." She clasped the metallic device around her friend's forearm.

Star grinned, still breathing heavily as she tried to catch her breath. "So what do I do? Just wish myself in the place were I want to be?"

"Hold on, hold on!" Kate latched herself onto her friend's arm. "Okay, that's better. You don't as much wish as seriously concentrate on exactly where you want to be. And what you're wearing or hanging on to will go with you." She held up the captive arm. "Hence the death grip."

"Alright, I see." Star closed her eyes and thought about her favorite movie, Gettysburg, the charge and Lo Armistead's face. He concentrated on it more then anything else, having no other thoughts but the place that she wanted to be.

The transition between realities was virtually nonexistant - they were standing in Kate's house one moment and on a battlefield the next. "Okay, we're here," Kate said. "Oh, and after you kidnap what's-his-face, we're going to go hijack one of my favorite people, okay?" An explosion rocked the ground less than 100 meters away from the two girls. "Also, let's get out of the line of fire. Like, NOW."

"It's not what's-his-face! It's Lo!" Star said, flinching away from the explosion without even thinking about it. Then she looked out over the battlefield, ignoring the last thing her friend had said. "There's Lo!"

Kate watched her friend take off towards the general. "Idiot. I said OUT of the line of fire, not into it!" Seeing no other choice before her, and fueled by the fact that Star still had the Thingy (which, Kate decided, should be the official name for it), she followed her friend.

The battlefield seemed to be utter chaos, but Star didn't pause in her step. There was only one thing that she saw, the form leading the men towards the stone wall with his hat upon the tip of his sword. And she charged towards him with everything she had, she had to stop him from crossing over the wall.

"I don't get it," Kate muttered, running crazily while trying not to get hurt or killed with the cannonballs landing all around her. "She always - HOLY SHIT - complains about how I always like 'frighteningly dangerous' characters, and she drops us in the middle of a freaking battlefield."

It was then that she reached the stone wall at the same time that Armistead reached it. Forcing herself to take the last few steps, she grasped him from behind just as a volley of rifles went off in front of them. Both of them fell over just behind the stone wall, luckily neither of them hurt.

Kate finally saw her friend, and collapsed under the wall to avoid injury as much as possible. Crawling over to Star, she hissed, "Are you out of your fucking mind?!" before yanking the Thingy from the older girl and putting it on. She grabbed Armistead and Star, and concentrated on a spot she saw, a bit more than a mile away. Almost instantaneously, the three of them were in a patch of woods empty of soldiers and firearms.

Star stared at her before scrambling to her feet. Beside her, Armistead got up slowly, his face a mask of confusion. Quickly, she turned towards Kate. "What are you doing? I didn't get to find Win!"

Kate stared blankly at Star for several seconds, before turning to the general and saying, "I apologize in advance for my most unladylike behavior." Then, turning to Star, she started screaming. "What the hell is wrong with you?! You drop us here, run straight into a battlefield UNARMED, nearly get shot to death, nearly get ME shot to death, I save your ass and this guy" - she pointed at Armistead - "And the first thing you say is that you didn't get to find some other guy?!"

"Yes, that's exactly what I say," Star said simply, glancing at Armistead, then back at Katie. "I had things under perfect control, all I had to do was find Win, and then you pulled Lo and I out of there before I could do just that. I've got to go back-"

"You're in the middle of a war, girl." Kate interrupted, exasperated. "There is no such thing as 'under control' in these situations. One stray bullet, and ta-da! You're dead. I'm not letting you go back." She poked Star in the shoulder. "Especially not with a jacket on that makes you a walking target."

Star turned around again and looked at her. "Right now the charge is at it's maximum," She stated, "This is my best chance to get in there and find Win before the Union forces have time to recover and before the Confederates begin retreating."

"No." Kate's tone left no room for argument. "I do not want to have to face your family if I let you get killed."

"I'm not going to get killed!" Star protested, "We can't take Lo and just leave Win behind!"

During this entire discussion, Armistead hadn't said anything. He was still trying to figure out what was happening. First he'd been leaped on by someone he'd never seen before in his life and then he'd been swept away from the battlefield in a blink of an eye, before he could even register what was happening. "Excuse me..." He said, staring at Kate and Star. "But can someone explain to me what's going on?"

At the sound of his voice, Star whipped around in face him, although she didn't say anything, just stared.

Kate, sensing an eminent fangirl reaction, jumped on Star and restrained her and covered her mouth before she could do any serious damage. "Sure we can leave Win behind. I won't risk you getting killed. Although if you do another bone-headed move like that, I might just have to kill you."

Looking over at Armistead, she said, "Eh. This is awkward..."

"Get off me!" Star's protest was muffled by Kate's hand and she pushed her away, tripping and falling over in the process. Once again, she stared up at Armistead, having landed right in front of her. Armistead looked blankly at her for a moment before reached down and holding out a hand, helping her back to her feet.

They were then standing right in front of one another, staring into each other faces, before Star spoke, somehow controlling herself.

"Hello sir..." Star said, her voice soft, not taking her eyes from Armistead the entire time, almost frozen where she stood.

"What's going on?" Armistead asked again.

Kate hesitated a moment before speaking. "Well... I'm not very good at explanations, and you probably wouldn't understand half of it. So I guess I should let Madame Weirdo explain. But I would brace for a lot of squealing, if I were you."

Star glanced towards Kate before looking at Armistead again. "I've wanted to meet you for so long General Armistead! For years actually, I view you as my hero, and my friend here found a way that could take us back into whatever world we want to be in and I came here to meet you Lo!"

Kate grumbled slightly. "I didn't make it for you... and it hardly counts as another world when you just use the Thingy as a time-travel thingy."

Armistead stared at her and raised an eyebrow, not even really understanding everything she'd just said, Star had said it so quickly. "Time travel?"

"Yes, time travel." Kate rubbed her temples. "This thing on my arm is basically an inter-time, inter-dimensional device. But it's easier to just call it a magic thingy. Basically, it takes the person wearing it, and anyone or anything they're hanging on to wherever the person wants. Which is how I got you and this idiot out of the battlefield."

"I'm not an idiot!" Star protested.

It all started to make sense then in Armistead's mind as he looked at the object of Kate's arm, then back at Star.

"Yeah, it's confusing, I know," Kate admitted. "And yes, Star, you are an idiot. And seriously, I have to ask..." She turned to her friend, ignoring the general completely for the moment. "You are always going on and on about how the people I like would kill me without a second thought. Okay, I'll admit, a few of them would. But not all of them. And anyway, I can recognize the urge-to-kill-rising signs soon enough to get the hell away from there before they actually kill me - " Kate cut herself off, realizing that she was going off on a tangent. "Anyway, what could possibly have made you think that landing HERE - well, not here exactly, but you get the idea - was a good idea?!"

"Because Lo's here," Star said, "And Win, and George, and Lawrence, and Buster, and Buford and Tom, and Devin, and Longstreet, and Lee, and-"

Kate clapped a hand over Star's mouth before she could continue. "All right, I get the point. Also, don't start talking about Devin. Seriously. I keep thinking of the wrong Devin."

She looked over at Armistead. "See, I have to LIVE near this girl. Be glad you've only just met her."

"I take it..." Armistead said then, "That she is very interested in my time period.... and in the people in it..."

Star pulled away from Kate for the second time that day and cast her a glare, unhappy that she'd been cut off.

Kate grinned. "She's usually worse about it, actually. Anyway, Star. Is there any way possible that you'd leave without Win?"

Star shook her head firmly. "No way."

Armistead looked from one to another again. "Win? Win Hancock?" Hearing the name made him think of his closest friend, who he hadn't seen before the war but who he knew was closed, was across the battlefield.

Kate glanced at Armistead. "So... that's the guy's last name?" After a slight pause, she added, "Yeah. Sorry, but I don't know jack shit about this time period." She turned to Star. "I was afraid of that. See, the thing is, I'm still pretty much dead-set of hijacking Matthew. And it might get a bit awkward to get everyone around."

One look at Star's face indicated that nothing would stop her. Kate sighed and took off the Thingy. "Fine. Just get as close to him as possible, and get back here as soon as you can. If you die, I'll kill you."

Grabbing the thingy, Star grinned before she disappeared back onto the battlefield. Armistead watched her disappear, then looked over towards Kate. "If she dies," he asked then, "How would you kill her?"

"Huh," Kate said. "I didn't really think about that." After a moment of thought, she said, "Oh! Easy. I go somewhere, find a necromancer, get him or her to ressurrect Star, and then kill her. Problem solved."

"If you ask me, that's a lot of trouble to go through just to kill her again," Armistead said, shrugging. These time travelers were strange.

"Good point..." Kate said. "Maybe I'll just go back to a few minutes before she dies and then kill her. But that might make a pretty awful paradox." After a few minutes of silence, Kate shouted, to no one in particular, "WHAT THE HELL IS TAKING HER SO LONG?!"

Armistead shrugged again, not sure what to say to Kate. He looked out towards the battlefield for a moment in silence before he spoke, softly, more to himself then to anyone else. "They're going to report me missing...."

Kate shrugged slightly, unsure of how to react. "It beats being dead." She caught herself after the words left her mouth. "Um. I don't think I should have said that."

Blinking, Armistead stared at her. Dead? He was almost afriad to ask, started to open his mouth to speak but then decided against it at the last minute as Star appeared, with Hancock, on a stretcher.

Kate grinned at Star. "Good. You're back. That means I don't have to- wait. He's shot?"

Star nodded sadly, kneeling beside Hancock who had been shot in the upper leg, close to the hip. "You didn't let me go to him soon enough...."

Armistead's eyes locked on the form in the stretcher then and he fell to his knees beside the other general, taking Hancock's hand.

"Um? Hello, Star? Do the words 'time control' mean ANYTHING to you?!" Kate asked, starting to slip into rant mode. "And now we'd end up with a paradox if you went to go back and fix it. So we have to find some sort of doctor or healer. And not one of the craptastic ones from this era." Kate began pacing, not really paying attention to the generals. "A healer of some sort. Who wouldn't ask too many questions. Think. Think. Think."

"You mean that I could have gone back and kept him from being shot?" Star asked, standing up and facing her friend. "And surely you know of a healer or doctor someplace in one of the universes that you know about?"

"Um, yeah, you could have." Kate groaned slightly. "The healer or doctor thing isn't as easy as it sounds. I could go to the water tribe healers from Avatar, but they'd ask a lot of questions, especially with the uniform issues. Plus, they're basically at the north pole, and even though it's not quite as harsh there, we'd still probably end up freezing. I can't think of anyone from X-Men with healing powers besides Logan, and they only apply to himself. And most of the other things I know have can't heal the guy that quickly."

Star thought for a moment. "What about in Artemis Fowl?" She asked after a moment. "Holly could heal him...."

Kate froze and stared at Star. "Hmm... But again, there's the questions issue. As far as I can remember, she would want to know who he is, who we are, how he got hurt, what's going on, and so on. And... she's a fairy or something, right? Could be a bit difficult to find her." Kate paused for a moment, and tossed the Thingy back to Star. "You know what, it's the best bet, and you know more about Artemis Fowl than I do."

Kate turned to the two generals. "Hey, we're probably going to get moving pretty soon."

"I haven't read them in a while..." Star said, catching the Thingy and putting it on, "But I can get us there."

She glanced at the generals then and moved towards then, placing one hand on each of them and then glancing over at Kate.

The scenery changed again, from the relatively quiet woods to a downright silent building. Kate glanced at Star. "You'd better hope to hell this worked."

Star nodded and glanced at her. "It would be better if we didn't draw attention to ourselves. You stay here with the generals."

Without even waiting for an answer, she slipped off to find Captain Holly Short.

Kate watched her friend vanish down the hall. She didn't know where she was exactly - she had only read one book of Artemis Fowl, back when she was in third grade. A thought hit her, and she cursed under her breath. _I could have just gone to Dr. Marcoh. Or Dr. Mauro. He would have been relatively easy to blackmail, too..._

Armistead looked up at her then, from where he was kneeling beside his closest friend, his almost brother. For a moment silence surrounded all of them until he spoke. "This is a different world, isn't it?"

"Yes. Yes, it is," Kate replied in a total deadpan. "If Star had actually thought her plan through, we might have been able to avoid this." She knew how terse she sounded, but it was mostly from not knowing where she was, and having to take an unplanned side trip. Kate decided to keep it in mind for her plans in the future. She knew Star would be in a similar position when they had to go to get Kate's characters.

"I just... I really wish that I didn't have to be here..."

"Where is here?" Armistead asked at the exact moment that Star reappeared, with Holly Short in tow. He looked in surprise at the elf.

"Here is here. Just... leave it at that, all right?" Kate asked. Directing her attention to Holly, she asked, "Miss... um... Short? Has Star explained why we need your help?"

Holly looked at the two generals, at Star and then at Kate. "No, she hasn't. And I want to know why. Who are you people anywhere?"

Star paused. "We need your healing powers."

Kate sighed. "We aren't anyone. Not anyone important. Please, just help us and you'll never hear from us again." She indicated Hancock. "He's been hurt. It's honestly not that serious - he won't die from it - but we need him to be able to get up and moving."

The elf stepped towards Hancock, looking at the uniform and then at the bullet hole in the man's leg. "He's been shot, how did that happen?"

She turned around to look at the others assembled.

Kate looked at Star, who offered no explanation. "It is a very long story. Let's just say he was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"That's a good way of putting it," Star agreed, "We don't have time to explain any more. We just need him to be healed so that we can be on our way."

Holly hesitated, then stepped over to Hancock and placed the tips of her fingers over the wound, getting two sets of confused looks from Hancock and Armistead. But she ignored them and let the blue sparks sail from her fingers into Hancock's leg, healing the wound.

Kate relaxed a bit. From what she could remember from the one Artemis Fowl book she had read, Holly was reasonable. And she did heal the guy... Kate sighed. "Are we all okay, then?"

Star stepped over to where Armistead and Hancock were still staring at Holly and looked at Hancock's leg. Although there was blood on the cloth, the wound was completely healed, without even a scar. "We're good," She said, smiling, "It's healed better, from the looks of it, then it healed according to history."

Kate scoffed slightly. "That's because, like I've said, doctors in that time suck. Which is why I insisted on finding a better healer." She looked at Holly. "Thank you," she said earnestly. It was about the only thing she could really think of.

Turning to Star, Kate said, "I think we should stop by at my place for a bit. A lot has happened in a really short time." After a second of pondering the accuracy of her statement, she added, "Well, to us, at least."

"You want to bring Lo and Win back to our time?" Star asked as Holly watched them with her arms crossed, not saying anything.

Kate raised an eyebrow. "Would you rather I just took them to Hetalia without any time to sit and think of a plan? Unlike you, I don't intend on just grabbing Matthew and running."

"Why can't we just grab him and run?" She asked, "Wouldn't that be easier? I would have loved to stay in the Civil War Era for longer, but I didn't ask to stay longer because I knew you wanted to get going."

Kate flushed slightly, knowing that her friend was right. "Well... er..."

"If we stay longer in your world, can we go back and visit the Civil War again before going home?" Star asked.

Kate nodded. "All right. Sounds fair enough. Shall we get going?"

Star nodded and glanced towards the two generals and Holly, none of whom had said a word for a little while. "Yes, let's go."

Kate rested an arm around Star, who grabbed the generals' hands. Focusing her concentration on the Thingy, she took them all back to her house.


	2. Chapter 2

Kate's dog wandered into the room the second the four of them appeared. The small Boston terrier stared blankly for a few seconds, clearly confused, before bouncing over to them and trying to get them to play with her.

Smiling, Star knelt to pet the dog, before looking up at Hancock and Armistead. "Welcome to the 21st century."

Kate paused for a moment, smiling at her dog's antics, before saying, "Wait… it's the 21st century already?" She paused, apparently counting, and answered herself with, "Well… what do you know…"

"It's been the 21st century for 12 years…" Star said, staring at her for a moment. "And it took you this long to notice?"

Armistead and Hancock looked at each other, each of them silently doing the math in their heads and realizing how far into the future they had actually gone. In the blink of an eye they had traveled from their year of 1863, to a strange world they'd never seen before, and then had found themselves in 2012. It was a strange day.

A cloud passed over the sun outside, blocking a good portion of sunlight. "No! Dark bad!" Kate exclaimed, leaping over to turn on a nearby lamp. "Especially in 2012! Stupid apocalypse…" Her dog, in reaction to the sudden motion, grabbed a toy and started following her, resulting in a game of tug-of-war.

As soon as the light went on, both Armistead and Hancock stared at it. "How did you do that?" They both asked at the same time.

"It's magic!" Katie exclaimed. "Give me the stupid toy, fuzzball." The latter comment was directed towards her dog, not the generals.

"It's not magic," Star said, turning towards the two. "It's electricity. It's from after your time."

"Nope, it's totally magic," Kate commented absentmindedly. She managed to pry the dog's jaws apart and snatch the toy. "Haha, I win."

"You think that everything's magic," Star said.

As Kate took the toy from the dog's mouth, Armistead watched her. "She's skinny for a French Bulldog."

"Everything is magical because the world is magical!" Kate exclaimed. She threw the toy across the room, and the dog went scampering to get it. "And she's a Boston terrier, not a French bulldog. Although I can see why you'd get them mixed up."

Star decided not to respond to that remark; instead she sat down and settled for staring at Armistead. "A Boston terrier?" He asked, a slightly confused expression on his face.

Hancock still didn't say anything, as he was too busy staring around the room and taking it all in.

"Boston terrier," Kate replied, offering no explanation whatsoever. Her dog ignored her after retrieving the toy, instead going over to Hancock and jumping on him.

"What's a Boston terrier?" Armistead asked, "Other then a type of dog, because I can see that already."

When the dog jumped at him, Hancock also jumped slightly in surprise, before kneeling down and reaching out to pet her.

"That's a Boston terrier," Kate said, pointing at her. The dog was busy bouncing around Hancock, making it impossible for him to pet her.

"I never would have guessed that," Armistead said, "It's not like you didn't already tell us."

Since he wasn't having any luck petting the dog, Hancock decided to just watch her, before he spoke for the first time since arriving at the house. "She has a lot of energy."

"She's a ninny," Kate said noncommittally, picking up one of tennis balls scattered around the room. "Hey, Duchess!" The dog, noticing the ball, immediately bounced over to her owner. Kate faked throwing the ball, and the dog went bounding out of the room. "And stupid," She added, finishing her earlier sentence. "Yeah, congratulations Kate, you've outsmarted the dog," Kate said to herself as the dog bounced back into the room, completely bewildered.

Star was still just staring at Armistead, but after a moment she turned to look at Kate. "Didn't we come here to plan how we are kidnapping your characters? Not play with the dog."

"She speaks!" Kate exclaimed, and then stopped to think about what she had actually said. "Oh… right… Like, how I'm going to get Matthew to go with me _without_ just tackling him and dragging him away? I don't want to give the poor guy a heart attack…"

"I didn't give Lo a heart attack!" Star replied.

"Lewis isn't Matthew," Kate replied. "Seriously, from what I know, Matt's used to getting ignored most of the time. I only know one person who can actually _see_ him all the time. Seriously, Mattie's own brother forgets him half the time!" Kate stopped and frowned. "Poor Mattie…"

Armistead looked up in surprise from where he had gone over to Hancock and sat down next to his friend. "No one's called me Lewis in a long time…."

"Huh?" Kate asked, snapping out of her fangirlish thoughts. "Oh… really? It's a cool name…"

"You should tell George that," Armistead replied, smiling faintly as he thought about Pickett, and the first time he'd been called by his nickname.

"Is he the guy with the weird moustache?" Kate hesitated. "Wait, no, that covers about three-quarters of the male population for your time…" She jumped over and poked Star in the head. "Way to contribute to the conversation, Star!" She exclaimed with mock cheerfulness.

"What?" Star looked up in surprise from where she'd been staring at Armistead, not paying at all attention to the conversation. "Hey! You dented my hat!"

Kate rolled her eyes before snatching Star's hat and punching the dent out from the inside. "Problem solved! Now stop fangirling and pay attention. And I don't think it would be a good idea for you to start fangirling in Hetalia." After a moment's hesitation, she added, "Not even if you run into Feliciano."

"I won't fangirl at any of them," Star said, "Don't worry. I shall control myself!"

She grinned, and looked over at Armistead again, before looking back at Kate. "How are we going to find Matthew?"

Kate rolled her eyes and sarcastically muttered, "Yes, you've been the utmost epitome of fangirl-self-control so far." Out loud, she said, "Um. Yeah. Not so sure about that."

"We should figure that out," Star said, "Unless we just want to go for it like we did when we went to Gettysburg… Because, so far, we really haven't gotten much planning done."

Kate frowned. "Yes, we must figure that out. Because if we just go like we did earlier, we might run into Alfred. Or worse, Ivan," the girl shuddered slightly. "As much as I fangirl at him, I think it would be somewhat detrimental to my health to actually meet the guy."

Armistead and Hancock looked at each other, wanting to ask about that last comment, but deciding that it would be better to just not say anything. So they just looked back at the two girls and continued listening to the conversation.

"Well then, how are we going to do it?" Star asked, "We want to figure out what we're doing and get going, right? I don't think we want to just sit here talking all day, as fun as that is."

Kate brightened up. "I think I've got it! We can probably get to the same general area as Matthew, the same place where they have all those meetings. You know what I'm talking about, Star. However, I have absolutely no idea where to go from there, so I suggest that we split up and look for Matthew separately! It's our best bet! And if we run into anyone else, I say that we either lie our asses off or run like hell!" She didn't realize that she was starting to sound eerily like another character from the same series.

"Alright." Star nodded. "I'm going with Lo!"

Kate rolled her eyes, something she had been doing a lot more frequently since their adventure started. "I really should have seen that coming. You remember what Mattie looks like, right?"

Once again Star nodded. "Yes I do. We do like to shove pictures of our favorite characters into each others faces, remember?"

Kate grinned. "Yes, yes we do. But you're not going to get him mixed up with Ivan, right? 'Cause, if your memory for my characters is anything like my memory for yours, we could end up in serious trouble…" She trailed off, thinking of the person she just mentioned. "He is definitely a respect-from-afar case."

"I remember what he looks like," Star said, "Don't worry, I won't get them mixed up. So, I'll go with Lo and you can go with Win."

"Works for me, I'm equally apathetic about both of them!" Kate grinned, then suddenly became serious. "Don't confuse Francis for Mattie, okay? Or Alfred? I don't know why people mix them up all the time, they're completely different… Thingy, yes?"

Star took the Thingy from her arm and handed it to her. "I'm not going to get them mixed up! So stop telling me not to confuse them and let's go, we're wasting time."

"Hello, time control? Remember? Kinda hard to waste time." Kate put on the Thingy, and said aloud, but still to herself, "I will stay on task. I will not get distracted and try to kidnap anyone else. Especially not Gilbert or Francis, although they are incredibly kidnappable. And if I get distracted, Win, you have full permission to slap me upside the head."

"Alright…" Hancock said, sounding slightly unsure of the idea.

Star stood up then and went over to the generals, putting a hand on each of their shoulders and glancing back at her friend. "Kate… Let's go."

"Okie-dokey, then!" Kate put a hand on top of Star's head and transported them. Soon they were in the halls often seen in the show.

"Stop denting my hat!" Star protested, taking off the hat and fixing it before putting it back on her head and looking around.

Kate looked around as well. They were in a straight stretch of hallway. "Star, you and Lo go that way," Kate said, pointing down one side. "We're going this way," She pointed in the other direction. "And keep quiet! We don't want to get caught!" She grabbed Hancock's arm and started marching off.

"Alright." Star said, turning towards Armistead and grinning. "Let's go Lo!"

Together they started walking off in the direction that Kate had pointed. "So…" Armistead said, "Where are we?"

"It's another world," Star said, "Called Hetalia, we're looking for a character that Kate wants to kidnap, like I kidnapped you."

"Oh." Armistead said, "What was she talking about with that Ivan person?"

"He's Russia."

Armistead blinked. "You mean he's Russian right?"

Star shook her head. "No, I mean the country. Matthew is a country too, Canada."

"We're kidnapping a country?"

"That's a good way of putting it," Star said, "Kate's an overachiever. I kidnap two people and she wants to kidnap an entire country. Although it's a good thing she doesn't want to kidnap Ivan."

Armistead wasn't quite sure what to say, so for a moment they walked in silence. "What does Matthew look like then? I can keep a look out for him also."

"Blonde hair, purple eyes and a polar bear that talks," Star replied.

"Purple eyes… talking polar…?" Armistead paused, "Don't explain, I don't think I want to know."

Germany was working through paperwork when he heard unfamiliar voices pass outside his door. One of them was describing someone, although the description didn't sound like anyone he knew. Determined to find out what was going on, he left his work where it was and stepped out in the hallway, only to see two people – a young girl and an older man – in unfamiliar uniforms. "Hey!" he called, getting their attention. "Who are you?"

Star jumped and turned around to stare at him. Oh no…. they'd hardly been there and already someone had found them. "Uh…." She said, "Housekeeping?"

Germany scowled. That excuse was almost as bad as the ones Italy made up for sleeping through training.

Glancing at Armistead, Star didn't say anything for a moment before looking back over at him. "If you don't mind, we're going to on our way."

"Not," Germany snapped, "Until you explain who you are and what you're doing here. This is _supposed _to be a secure building."

"Um… um… um… um… um… um… We got lost!" Star said.

The blond's glare grew darker. "Wrong answer."

Star looked at Armistead nervously, pacing a few feet in one direction, then a few feet in the other as she tried to think. "Why can't we be here?"

Germany paused for a second, not out of lacking an answer, but because the girl's panicked demeanor seemed suspiciously familiar. "…Do you know Italy?" He asked.

"Yes!" Star jumped on the excuse. "I'm… I'm Sicily!"

And pointed at Armistead then. "And he's Sardinia! We're going to give Italy his birthday present! But it's supposed to be a surprise so we didn't want to tell you!"

Germany relaxed. Sure, they didn't bear much resemblance to Italy Veniziano, but their reactions – or at least the girl's – were pretty much proof. Also, he had work to do, and didn't have the time to deal with this. "Fine. Sorry for bothering you," he said flatly, before doing back into his office and slamming the door. He went back to his work, until he realized something about ten minutes later. "…It's not Italy's birthday…"

"Okay…" Star took a deep breath and looked at Armistead, "We were lucky, let's keep going. And maybe we should be a bit quieter."

Armistead nodded and they both continued walking away from Germany's office to continue their search for Matthew.

-

Kate and Winfield hadn't run into any trouble, as they both remained silent as Kate strode purposefully through the halls. Not like she had any idea where she was going. Win followed silently, as the girl had pretty much given up on dragging him. After a few minutes, Kate started humming quietly. There was no way for Win to know, but it was the Mission Impossible theme song.

While he didn't recognize the song, Hancock decided not to ask, not waiting to say anything. After all, she had told him to be quiet, and he didn't want to run into any trouble in a place where he didn't have a clue what was going on, or where he even was.

Kate was the one to break her own no-talking rule. "So… How long do you think it'll be until Star and Lewis run into trouble?"

Hancock shrugged. "How should I know?"

"Good point," Kate responded. Despite talking, she was careful to keep her voice low. For all she knew, there could be someone behind every door they passed. "But still, leaving Star alone with him… there's no way they're going to be quiet. Star can only stay quiet when she's alone."

"How do you know that?" Hancock asked, also keeping his voice low, "She could talk to herself."

Kate stayed silent for a minute. "Um. I've known her for most of my life. I think I'd have noticed if she talks to herself by now?"

"So you can explain her obsession with Lo then?"

Kate grinned. "Yeah, not really. I've officially filed that one under 'I really, _really_ don't want to know, or get her started on that'. Although I guess it isn't too different from my obsessive issues."

Hancock nodded, deciding against asking about her obsessions as he wasn't really sure that he wanted to know. He fell silent then, falling back into the no talking rule.

Kate noticed that Hancock didn't ask about her last comment. "Probably a smart choice," she said aloud, referring to that decision.


	3. Chapter 3

Not talking to Armistead, while it had been a good idea, didn't last for very long. Star was explaining to him, about the time when she'd first realized she was interested in the Civil War. "You see, it was when I was in 8th grade," she said, "And I was studying the Civil War in history class, so my dad thought that I might want to watch this amazing movie that he had called Gettysburg. At first I told him I didn't want to watch it, and he actually forced me to watch it. But I did watch it and then I realized that I really really really liked the movie. Of course that was only when I'd finished watching the first half of it, and I decided that I loved Colonel Chamberlain and I fell asleep that night thinking about how awesome he was and I spend the next day asking when we were going to finish watching the other part. We did the next night and that part was the part where you were really involved, because it was all about Pickett's Charge. For a while I don't think I really fangirled much but then I started to watch the movie much more and I realized how awesome and completely beautiful you are and then I wanted to learn all that could about you. Then a few years ago I started an RP and you were the first person I wanted to write and I've waited to meet you for a very long time you know, I dream about you at night, and I love you so much! You're the most awesome person to ever walk the face of the Earth and I'm so glad to actually meet you, I've dreamed about this moment for a very long time you know. Because you're beautiful and handsome and-."

"GERMAAAANYYYYYY! THERE'S A SPIDER IN MY ROOM AND IT'S BIG AND SCARY AND HAS A LOT OF LEGS AND I THINK HE WANTS TO STEAL MY PASTAAAAAAAAA!" Star was cut off mid-sentence when a man who appeared to be in his early twenties flew around a corner and crashed right into her, knocking her over in the process. "Oh?"

"Hello Italy…" Star said, staring up at him and pushing him off of her. "Can you please watch where you are going?"

"Sorry…" He said, kneeling on the ground in front of her. "The spider wanted my pasta…" He looked incredibly upset for a moment, but brightened up just as quickly. "Hey, how do you know my name?"

Star paused for a moment, to think of the best answer. "Oh… I know Rome."

Italy grinned and hugged Star. "You knew Grandpa Rome? Yay! It's like I'm meeting old family! Who are you?"

She looked up at Armistead, unsure of what to say. If she could help it, she really didn't want to let Italy know that she'd told Germany who they were, and she didn't want to change the excuse either. But Armistead answered the question for her. "I'm Sardinia and she's Sicily."

"Huh?" Italy said, looking utterly bewildered. "No you're not…"

"My name's Star," she said, realizing that excuse was not going to work at all with Italy, seeing as they were parts of Italy to begin with. "And his name is Lo."

"Why did you say you were Sardinia and Sicily then? But Star's a pretty name…" Italy had, thankfully, completely forgotten about finding Germany.

"Thanks…" Star said, standing up and going over to Armistead, hugging him tightly.

"Hey… How about we go and hang out? I can make some pasta!" Italy exclaimed happily.

"Uh…" Star paused. "We have something that we have to do actually… Maybe some other time?"

"That would be great! Do you need any help with what you're doing?" He seemed to remember something. "Hey, maybe we could get Germany's help! He's really good at helping people, he gets me out of trouble all the time!"

"NO!" There was no way that Star was going to go anywhere near Germany's office again if she could help it. "Germany and I don't get along very well. But maybe you could help. Do you know where Canada is?"

"Who's Canada?" Italy asked. "You know Germany too? Is there anyone you don't know?!"

"No, I know everyone," Star said sarcastically, "I get around."

"Really?" Italy asked, obviously believing her. "Hey, maybe when we hang out, I can get Romano to come too! You get along with him, right?"

Star nodded. "Yeah… But we really should get going now…"

Italy grinned. "Okay, I'll see you around then, Star!" He paused, and looked at a nearby clock. "Hey, it's lunchtime! Maybe I should ask if Germany wants any pasta…" He proceeded to run off, not quite as quickly as he arrived, shouting, "GERMANYY!!!!!"

Star and Armistead watched him go before looking at each other and smiling faintly. Italy was very amusing. "Alright," Star said, "Let's stop wasting time."

And then they started walking off again, to continue their search.

-

Unlike their counterparts, Kate and Win had actually remained silent, and hadn't run into anyone. The area of the building they were in was very quiet, so the only sounds were the creaking of the floorboards and their breathing. Kate suddenly stopped, nearly making Win crash into her. "Shh," she said quietly, and listened.

She could hear quiet sounds of a conversation up ahead, around a corner. She wanted to listen to see if she could identify who it was.

"Who?" a quiet voice asked.

"I'm Canada…" an equally quiet (if not quieter) voice responded. "Remember? The guy who feeds you?"

Kate grinned. "Found him," she said, quietly enough so Canada wouldn't hear.

"Now that we found him what are we going to do?" Hancock asked, keeping his voice low as well so that only Kate would hear him. "And how are we going to find Star and Lo again?"

Kate thought for a minute. "I'll just use the magic Thingy. You stay here." She didn't wait for a reply, but walked around the corner.

Canada was sitting on a short chair, holding his pet bear. Hoping like mad that her idea would actually work, Kate walked up to Canada and said, "Hey, you're Canada, aren't you?"

Canada jumped at the sudden recognition, almost falling out of his chair. His bear gave him an annoyed look, but he ignored it. "You… can see me?"

Kate smiled. So far, so good. "Yeah, I can see you. You're Canada, right?"

The blonde nodded slightly. "Yeah, I'm… just not used to people seeing me. Or recognizing me."

Kate continued smiling, but not enough to be disturbing. Inwardly, she was panicking. She had half-expected Matthew to act like his brother and tell her to go away or something. She had no idea what to say. "Um…"

Hancock had been silent for the whole time, watching Kate and Canada when he heard a voice echoing down the hallway.

"…. I've admired you for some time now Lo, years even, because I like I said before Italy bumped into me, you are handsome and beautiful and I always dream about being with you. Now I don't even want to send you back, because I want you to stay with me forever! We can be best of friends Lo, for all of our lives! I mean, don't we get along wonderfully!"

Kate's smile vanished as she heard Star's rambling float down the hallway. "Why do I even know that girl?" She muttered under her breath.

"Who?" Kumajirou asked. For once, the bear didn't seem to be asking Canada.

"Her name's Star. She's a bit…" Kate trailed off, at a loss for words. Turning her attention back to Canada, she said, "Sorry."

Canada shrugged slightly, but didn't say anything. He wasn't entirely sure what was going on.

"How about she's a bit obsessed with my friend?" Hancock suggested, finishing Kate's sentence for her.

It was then that Star and Armistead came into view, Star still going on to Armistead about just how beautiful she thought he was. Armistead looked slightly less then pleased about the situation and nudged Star. "Star… look…" He pointed towards Kate and Canada.

"What?" Star looked up at him, then followed his gesture. "Oh! Kate! You found him!"

Canada blushed slightly, unused to being the center of attention, and tried to hide behind Kumajirou. Kate resisted the urge to apologize again, and said, "Does the word 'quiet' mean anything at all to you, Star?"

"Uh…" Star thought for a moment. "Yes, it means that there isn't a sound."

Kate started to shift into her quiet, I'm-very-angry-right-now-but-I-don't-want-to-shout voice. "And didn't I say that it would be best to stay quiet while we were here?" She felt bad for confusing Canada, but she decided that she had to scrap her original plan, however pathetic it was, and just go with whatever happened.

Star nodded. "Yes…. But I wasn't talking that loud. And I'm sure you must have talked too at some point."

Kate's expression hardened. "Yes, I did talk. I said about five sentences." After a moment's silence, she added, "So. How many did you get caught by?"

Glancing at Armistead, Star was silent for a moment. "Um… Only two…"

"Um… what are you talking about?" Canada asked, barely audible. Kate cast a sympathetic glance to him.

"Sorry about this, Matthew," She said. Canada looked surprised at the use of his human name. Kate turned back to her friend. "_Only_ two? I think that was two more than you were supposed to meet. Who were they?"

"Well Italy would have run into us anyway," Star said, "Seeing as he came charging down the hall. I suppose we could have avoided running into Germany, but we got out of that alright."

Kate pinched her nose, trying to keep her temper under control. "Whatever. Just be quiet."

Canada stood up. "Um… what are you doing here anyway? Were you looking for me?"

"Eh…" This time, Kate was the one to blush. In fact, she turned an interestingly deep shade of red. "Yes… sort of…"

Star nodded. "Yup, we were looking for you alright. Kate here wanted to find you, just like earlier I wanted to find Lo and Win! So we came here with the mission to find you and as it is clear, that mission has now been completed. So I don't know why we are still standing around here talking. And wow Katie, that is a very interesting shade of red."

"You know…" Armistead said, "You just reminded me of George for a moment there."

Kate covered her face, trying and failing to hide her blush. "Star!" She squeaked.

Canada looked slightly shocked at Star's rambling. Unsure of what to say, he mumbled something incoherently. Kumajirou looked from his owner to Kate, and back to his owner. "She likes you," the bear said, matter-of-factly.

Grinning, Star looked at Armistead and decided that instead of saying anything, that she was going to give him another hug. Armistead didn't say anything about that, just glanced at her before looking over at the bear, then meeting Hancock's confused gaze as his friend said, "Wait…. The bear talks?"

Canada smiled slightly, still a little thrown off from his pet's comment. "Yes, Komajaru talks…"

"Kumajirou," Kate corrected him, slightly muffled because she was still covering her face.

The bear looked over at the still-blushing girl. "I like her," he said mildly.

"I don't have any food with me," Kate said, refusing to move her hands.

"I don't like her," the bear said in the exact same tone. Canada laughed, only causing Kate to blush more.

"Are we going to stay here and risk meeting up with someone else again?" Armistead asked at a moment, Star still firmly attached to him, "Because I think it would be better if we didn't run into anyone, especially not Germany again."

Kate finally uncovered her face. "What? Germany's not that bad… A bit strict, maybe, but that's all." She stared at her friend for a moment. "Um. You seem to have a parasite."

"What?" Star looked up at her, not letting go of Armistead. "I'm not a parasite…"

Canada was the first to reply. "You do seem like one, being attached to him like that…" He was still speaking quietly, but his comment made Kate grin.

"Sweet, someone agrees with me." Kate turned serious again. "But seriously, what happened with Germany?" Before either Star or Armistead could reply, she turned to Canada, "Hey, do you know if Prussia's here?"

Canada blinked. "Um. Yeah, I think he's here… I can help you find him, if you want…" He wasn't used to being the center of attention, but he didn't dislike it.

Kate grinned. "You'd do that?"

"Yeah, Prussia and I are friends…" Canada smiled back at the strange girl. "His old office is this way… he's probably playing video games or something." With that, the blonde turned and started walking off, obviously expecting the group to follow.

When Canada started walking off, Star glanced up at Armistead, who she was still holding onto, then let go of him and started to follow, Armistead right behind her and Hancock behind them.

The group hadn't been walking for long when a loud burst of laughter sounded from down the hall. Kate grinned, suspecting who it was, but didn't say anything. In a few moments, they arrived at a room.

Through the open doorway, a man who appeared to be in his early tenties was sitting on a cushioned chair, laughing hysterically. "Seriously, West, you actually feel for that?"

Canada walked into the room, but Kate held back for a minute.

"Oh, hey, Canada," Prussia said. "I was just laughing at how much of an idiot West is."

Star, Armistead and Hancock stopped beside Kate. "Why are we stopping?" Star asked, keeping her voice barely a whisper so that no one else would hear them.

Kate blinked. "Er... I don't really know." She proceeded to walk into the room as if she owned the place. "Yo! Prussia! I was looking for you! Oh, hi Germany."

"Germany!" Star had followed Kate into the room with Armistead and Hancock when she froze upon seeing him.

"Who are you?" Prussia asked Kate, at the same time that Germany froze, staring at Star and Lo. "Not that I mind, it's great to see people who can appreciate my awesomeness."

"You two again!" The blonde shouted.

"Huh? They're the ones who said they were Italy's siblings?" Prussia asked, seeming as if he was about to start laughing again.

Star and Armistead looked at each other, then both looked at Germany, then at Prussia. Neither of them wanted to say anything, they hadn't wanted to see Germany again.

Behind them, Hancock had no idea what was going on.

Kate looked at Star and Lo, and said, "Wait, you two said you were related to Italy?"

"Yeah, apparently they did," Prussia commented, and grinned widely. "And West actually fell for it." That was enough to get him to start laughing again, and it wasn't long until Kate also started cracking up.

"You- you two said - Man, even I couldn't come up with something like that!" Kate managed to say in between giggles. Canada had, apparently, faded into the background and been forgotten again.

Almost as if on cue, Italy walked into the room, saying, "Germany!! I was looking for you but I got lost and then I thought you'd be here and here you are!" He stopped, and stared at the group of people. "Oh, Star's here too!"

Star had smiled faintly, then couldn't help herself, she laughed as well. Looking up as Italy entered, she stopped laughing. "Hi Italy..."

"I thought you said you didn't get along with Germany..." Italy started to say, entirely confused.

Kate managed to regain her composure, but she soon started laughing again at Italy's confused expression. "That's it, this is so going down in writing..."

"Who are you people?!" Germany shouted, annoyed at not knowing what was going on.

Prussia stopped laughing, and seemed perfectly content to sit back and watch whatever was going to happen next.

Canada went over to talk to Hancock. "Do you know what's going on?" He asked.

As Germany shouted, Star turned and looked at him, then looked at her friend. "Kate.... can you...?"

Hancock turned towards Canada. "Not really, it hasn't been explained to me very well."

"FLYING WALRUSES!" Kate shouted. Everyone immediately went silent and stared at the heavier girl in confusion. "Okay. Now that I have your attention... Germany, those... three are my friends. I dragged them here. Deal with it."

Kate hesitated, unsure of what to say next. "Star, over here." She hoped her friend would get the hint - _I'm about to get us out of here, and I don't want anyone to be left back here._

Star looked at Kate and nodded. _I understand. _Then she turned towards Armistead and Hancock, grabbing each of their arms and speaking in a low whisper. "Go over to Kate."

She then looked at Canada, unsure of what to say to him as she put a hand on his shoulder and led him over to where Kate was a few feet away.

Kate grinned. _If I mess this up, I am so screwed..._ she thought, before saying. "Oh, and Prussia?"

"What?" Prussia asked.

Kate stared at him for a second before grabbing Star's arm and his shoulder. "KIDNAPPING!" She shouted, and transported herself, Prussia, Star, the two generals, and Canada back to her house.

Italy and Germany stared at the place where Germany's brother - and pretty much everyone else - had been a second before. "Eh, this is too weird," Italy said, before wandering off.


	4. Chapter 4

Once they were all back in Kate's house, Star looked around at the people gathered there. "Well," She said, "We all made it back, that's a good thing."

Kate looked at the others. The generals appeared to be getting slightly more used to the sudden transport-via-Thingy, but the nations...

Canada was squeezing Kumajiouro to the point where the bear seemed rather less than happy, his face white from confusion and fright.

Prussia stared blankly around the room, until his brain seemed to catch up with the rest of him, and he started cursing loudly in German. At least, Katie thought it was cursing, from what she knew of his personality and what little grasp she had of the language.

Glancing at the two nations, Star decided that she really didn't care all that much about them and so pushed the Southern General down into a nearby chair and sat down happily next to him, deciding to watch how her friend took care of the situation instead of saying anything.

Kate stared at Prussia for a minute, who didn't seem to be slowing down at all. She decided that she would deal with him later, so she just snapped, "Shut up!" Prussia actually did, although it was probably more from surprise than anything else. Satisfied with that, Kate went over to Canada.

"I'm sorry..." She said, "I didn't want to do that."

From her spot sitting almost on top of Armistead, Hancock sitting in a chair a few feet away, Star looked over at Prussia and smiled faintly at him, not sure what to say.

Canada seemed to relax slightly, at least enough to stop crushing his bear. "W- where are we?" He asked.

"My place," Kate explained. "It's kind of a long story. And a really bad idea..." She was starting to seriously regret even making the Thingy in the first place.

Looking over to Prussia, who still seemed to be in shock, she added, "Um... I'm not going to force any of you to stay here, though. If you want to leave, you can just tell me and I'll let you."

"Why don't we let them see what they think of our world first?" Star suggested.

"Wait, what do you mean, world?" Prussia asked, finally speaking.

Kate shrugged. "Um. World like alternate universe. The nations don't have human forms here, for a start." After a second's hesitation, she added, "You might want to go by your human names as long as you're here."

"I have work..." Canada mumbled. "I can't stay here long..."

Kate glanced at him. "I can send you back to your own world at any time. I mean, like, I could have it so you came back, like, a second after you left even if you stayed here for a really long time. And I'm pretty sure the continuity generators would have it so there's no real difference between you being there and you being here. Like, you're there still but you're in two different - eh. I give up."

"Basically we are in two places at once?" Armistead asked.

"Um... yeah, sort of. But not really. It's complicated." Kate tried to explain.

"Wait, does that mean that I don't have to do any work?" Prussia asked.

Kate gave him an odd look. "But... you're not really a nation anymore... Did you even have to work in the first place?"

Prussia shrugged. "West made me help him with paperwork sometimes."

Canada smiled slightly, knowing that Prussia really spent most of his time sitting around Germany's house and playing video games. And although he didn't quite trust the sound of those 'continuity generators' or whatever they were, he didn't mind having at least some time without the stress of being a Nation.

"So..." Star looked around at everyone. "What do we do now?"

Kate hesitated. "Hold on a second!" She pointed to the generals and Prussia. "If we go walking around, the uniforms are going to be a bit of a problem. Star's fine because the whole neighborhood knows she's a nutcase, but there is definately a need for a change of clothes here."

Star looked down at her uniform jacket which she had pulled on over her t-shirt. "If I can go around wearing a uniform, I don't see why Win and Lo can't."

Kate sighed in frustration, before walking over to her friend and taking off the uniform jacket. She was glad that she knew her friend would be wearing a shirt underneath, or she'd have been too weirded out to even consider the idea. "There. No uniforms. Problem solved."

"Hey!" Star protested when the uniform was taken off. "There's nothing wrong with uniforms!"

Prussia agreed. "Uniforms are awesome! Especially on me."

Kate rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you people. If we're going anywhere in public, you'd look damn silly with military uniforms. Especially-" she looked at the three men, "-Horribly outdated uniforms. No matter how awesome they might look," she added to Prussia.

"The uniform is the only clothes I have," Armistead said and Hancock nodded in agreement.

Kate stopped and stared at the generals. She hadn't thought about that. Then again, the two men seemed to be about the same size... "Hold on a second!" She called before running out of the room. She returned a moment later with a few shirts. "I think these might fit you."

Armistead looked at the shirts. "Where did you get these?"

"They're my dad's," Kate replied cheerfully. "I'm guessing they're about the right size." She glanced over to Prussia. Her father's clothes wouldn't fit him - the nation was about half a foot shorter than him. Kate paused for a moment. "I wonder..." she said, before rushing off again, this time in a different direction.

Star, Armistead and Hancock watched her disappear in that direction before Armistead looked down at the shirt in his hand. "You could go in there." Star pointed in the direction of the bathroom. She had a basic idea of the way around her friends house.

Standing up, Armistead disappeared into the other room and Star watched him until he disappeared from sight behind the closed door.

"I think this might fit," Kate said, reentering the room with another shirt - this time a t-shirt instead of the button-up shirts her dad generally wore.

Prussia raised an eyebrow at this girl who seemed to be pulling various items of clothing from all over the place. "And this belonged to...?" He asked.

Kate shrugged. "It's mine, but I never wore it because it's a bit big on me."

Not taking her eyes off of the door Armistead had disappeared into, Star didn't say anything. She was partly wondering what Armistead would look like when he was out of uniform.

Prussia wasn't at all surprised by the girl having men's clothes that were her own - after all, he _had_ grown up with Hungary. He was just a little bit confused as to why she was so willing to let him borrow them for an indefinate period of time. He decided it was because he was just that awesome. Not really caring who saw, he started taking off his uniform top.

Kate noticed the direction of her friend's gaze. She'd figured, when one of the generals missing, that the girl had directed him to a different room to change. Kate sighed and lightly slapped her friend upside the head. "Pervert."

Star jumped in surprise and looked at her. "What? I'm waiting for Lo to come back."

"Oh, of course you are, S-eep!" Kate squeaked slightly and blushed when she noticed that there was a shirtless Prussia in the middle of the room. There was something to be said about the former nation - he had kept in shape...

Prussia noticed the girl's blush. "What? Too awesome for you?" He asked, causing Kate to blush even more. Canada just rolled his eyes from his place on the end of the couch, used to Prussia's attitude.

Hancock looked at them, not really sure what to say. He didn't approve of Prussia changing in the middle of the room, and was waiting for Armistead to be finished in the bathroom before changing out of his uniform.

It was then that the door did open, and Armistead reappeared, wearing the shirt that had been given to him, and the black pants of his uniform, which when Star looked at him, she didn't think went as well as they did with the uniform. But she didn't say anything, just jumped up from the chair and watched him walk back.

Prussia pulled on the t-shirt, plain green with some sarcastic sentence on it. It actually went pretty well with the dark navy uniform pants. _I'm not staring, I'm totally not staring,_ Kate thought to herself, over and over as she tried to not stare.

Armistead came back to where the rest of them were, looking over at Hancock. "Your turn Win."

The younger general stood up and disappeared into the bathroom and Armistead sat down, Star immently jumping onto the arm of the chair next to him, as she continued to stare at him.

Kate noticed that, despite herself, Canada was being ignored again. No, not Canada. They would be using human names in this world. Matthew, then. Although it was sadly easy to forget about Matthew, especially when there was such an attention hog as Pru- no, Gilbert around. She sat next to the blonde. "Sorry for ignoring you. You okay?" She asked.

Matthew nodded. "It's okay, I'm used to it. And I think... I'm starting to get used to the idea of staying here. For a little while, at least.

Gilbert collapsed into a chair. "Hey, no work. I think I'm going to like it here."

"What are we going to do now?" Star asked, tearing her gaze from Armistead for a moment as Hancock returned from changing and joined them in the room.

Kate looked at the assembled group for a minute or so, trying to figure out what they should do. Her dad's clothes, while much more normal-looking than the Civil War era uniforms, weren't a perfect fit for the two generals. She definitely needed to get new clothes for those two, at least. She glanced over at Prussia - _Gilbert!_ - and decided that he needed at least a few outfits as well.

Kate stared at Star, hoping to attract her attention, and said, "We need to go shopping."

"Why?" Star asked, looking at her in surprise. "What do we need?"

Kate rolled her eyes. "Maybe some clothes that'll actually fit these guys, for a start?"

Star shrugged. "I still don't think the uniforms are a problem."

Kate resisted the urge to bash her head against the nearest wall. "I know _you_ don't..." she muttered. Out loud, she continued, "But we can't have them wearing the same outfit for however long we're going to be chilling here."

Once again she shrugged as she started to stare at Lo again. "In the army they would wear the same uniform almost all the time."

"Which is gross," Kate said bluntly. This earned a small laugh from both Gilbert and Matthew.

"You would have died in the 1600s, then," Gilbert said mildly.

"Yes, yes I would have. Quite painfully, probably." Kate agreed.

"It's the 1800's," Star said.

Gilbert raised an eyebrow at the other girl. "I wasn't talking about their time. Actually, I think the 1300s would have been hell for you," He added. "Hah. Good times..."

Matthew just shook his head slightly.

"I think the 1800 are wonderful," Star said, "Because back then some really amazing people were alive."

She grinned at Lo. "Starting on February 18, 1817 when Lo was born."

Gilbert shrugged. "The 1800s were okay, I guess. If you disregard that whole France-being-an-asshole bit in the beginning."

"The 1800s were pretty good for me..." Matthew said quietly, hugging Kumajiro.

Kate grinned. "I'll stick to my own century, thanks."

"You are from the 1800's as well?" Hancock asked, appearing to be slightly confused. "But I thought you said you were fromt he 1300's..."

Gilbert laughed at the American general. "You really aren't that observant, are you?" He asked.

Kate sighed and stood up, walking to the center of the room. "Okay, you apparently didn't get the memo. Gilbert, over here, is Prussia. Matthew is Canada. We're all clear on that?"

There was silence in the room for a moment as Hancock stared at her. "What?"

"They're countries, Win." Armistead smiled faintly. Star had already explained it to him earlier, before they'd been caught by Germany.

Hancock stared at them. "Has everyone here lost their mind?"

Kate shrugged. "Let me try again. Gilbert is basically the human embodiment of Prussia. Except back in the 1300s, he was a Teutonic Knight?" She glanced over at the albino, who nodded. "Okay, I got that right. Then he became Prussia and then Prussia got dissolved - "

"You don't have to rub it in..." Gilbert muttered.

" - So I don't really know what he is now. And Matthew's Canada." Kate finished, ignoring the interruption.

"Clearly," Gilbert proclaimed from his seat, "I am the embodiment of awesome."

Still, Hancock stared blankly at them. "That's impossible."

"I always though time travel was impossible too..." Armistead said, glancing at all of them. "But that's happened, so I believe you."

Hancock stared at him. "Then you've lost your mind too."

Kate, Gilbert, and Matthew all exchanged glances. Matthew shrugged. "It's not that important, really..." he said, as quiet as ever.

Kumajiro looked up at the person cuddling him. "Who are you?"

"I'm Canada..." Matthew mumbled, more out of habit than anything. Kate started cracking up.

As Hancock continued to stare, Star glance over at Kate. "I thought we were going shopping. Did you change your mind?"

Kate shook her head. "No, I didn't. We just got sidetracked." She looked around the room at the others. "I think we can fit in the car... It's going to be a bit cramped, though."

"SHOTGUN!" Gilbert shouted before anyone else could speak.

"I'm sitting next to Lo!" Star said.

Kate laughed quietly. Really, she hadn't expected anything different. "All right, fine. But first, rules. One, it's my car. I'm driving. Two, we're headed to the mall. You know how expensive it can get, Star. Try to keep on budget. Three, let's not attract too much attention to ourselves, hmm?"

"So we are in America," Canada commented. "I thought so."

Star nodded. "Right... But what is the budget?"

Kate blinked. "Um. Let me check." With that, she rushed off to her room. There was a short period of silence, and then her voice came floating back, "I have about eighty bucks and a thirty dollar gift certificate to Sears... And I think there's still some money left on this Hot Topic gift card..." She returned with a wallet in hand.

"Alright." Star nodded again.

Canada raised his hand slightly. "Um. I have some American money. I think it's about 50 dollars?"

Kate stared at him. "...Why are you carrying that much money with you?"

"Have you met my brother?"

"Good point," the girl conceded. "So that's... Somewhere between 160 and 180 bucks..."

"That should be more then enough," Star stated, glancing over at Armistead and Hancock who were staring at them. She knew what they were thinking, that much money was worth more in their day.

Kate shrugged. "Remember, we're buying for four people here. We have to keep to the minimum."

Gilbert reclined on the chair and muttered something in German.

"I will pretend that I didn't understand that," Kate said, her tone exactly the same as it had been a second ago.

Gilbert blinked in surprise, and Kate looked around. "So. We have a plan, for once. Time to go?"

Star nodded. "Yup, time to go."

She grinned towards were Lo and Win were sitting. "Shall we introduce them to the car?"

Kate grinned. "Oh, boy, this could be interesting..." She paused, realizing something, and looked over to Matthew. "Kumajiro's going to have to stay here... is that okay?"

Matthew nodded. "Yeah, it's fine." He gently put the polar bear down.

"Okay then. Let's go," Kate walked through the house, followed by the two Nations.


	5. Chapter 5

Once she was outside of the house, Star looked from the car, to the generals, wondering how she was going to start trying to explain this to them. It could prove interesting. "Alright..."

She moved towards the door and glanced back at Kate, waiting for her to unlock the door, Armistead and Hancock behind her.

"Shotgun!" Gilbert shouted, immediately running over to the front passenger seat. Kate shook her head, thinking that she really should have seen that one coming, before opening the door. It wasn't a very large car, and the fact that there were six people to fit in it could make it interesting...

"Okay," Kate said, resting her arms on the roof of the car and looking around at the others. "This is going to be a bit tight. Ummm..." Considering that Star would want to sit with the Generals, she said, "Star, you sit in the back with those two. You should probably sit in the middle, you're the smallest. Matthew, you're going to be sitting in the fold-down seat in the front."

"All right," Matthew said. Kate decided that she really had to stop being so surprised at how agreeable he was. Or that she hadn't managed to trigger his angry-mode yet.

"Okay." Star agreed, looking into the back of the car. It would be tight, but she didn't mind too much if she was going to sitting next to the generals.

She glanced over at Hancock. "Why don't you get in first Win? Then I'll slide in and Lo will follow me in last."

Both of the generals nodded and all three of them got into the car. "Do you think you can pull the door closed Lo?" Star asked.

Armistead reached over and pulled it in, although Star could see that he hadn't closed it tight. She shouldn't have expected differently, he'd never been in a car before after all.

Kate managed to squish in with Canada and Prussia. "Seat belts," she snapped. "I really don't want to end up getting pulled over by a cop and having to explain why y'all don't have seat belts. And I really don't want to pay the fine, okay?" Matthew complied, and, to Kate's surprise, so did Gilbert.

Star quickly put on her seat belt and then looked to see how the generals were doing. Hancock and Armistead had both located it and were trying to get it to click into place. Somehow, after fiddling with it for a minute, Hancock managed to get it buckled. But Armistead, managed to put the seat belt on backwards, after having also twisted the strap.

Kate tapped her fingers on the steering wheel, watching the two generals try to figure out the seatbelts. "I'm not moving until you figure it out," she said bluntly. Matthew was apparently doing his best to ignore the shenanigans, and Gilbert wasn't even bothering to hide his amusement.

"Here." Star unbuckled Armistead's seat belt and untwisted it, before pulling it straight across him and clicking it into place. "It goes like that."

Armistead stared blankly at it for a moment. "How did you do that?"

"Practice, if you stay here long enough you'll learn too." She glanced up front. "Alright, Kate, we're ready to go."

Kate sighed. "Finally. Seriously, girl, can't you fangirl at anyone from a more recent time period?" Not really waiting for an answer, she pulled out of the driveway and started driving to the mall, absentmindedly punching on the radio for some background noise and keeping a running commentary about other people on the road. "Don't take my babbling personally, I'm just used to there being background noise when I'm driving. Really, if you ever end up meeting my family, you'd understa-WHAT THE HELL?" She shouted as a car suddenly cut her off. "DOES THIS LOOK LIKE NEW YORK TO YOU?"

"I hate it when cars do that..." Star said, watching the car that had just cut them off and then glancing over at Hancock, then Armistead, both of whom where just sitting there and staring around them in a mix of confusion and amazement.

"Is this some type of horseless carriage?" Armistead asked after a moment.

Five points to Lewis," Kate snapped, still a little peeved about the traffic. Gilbert started snickering again, while Matthew seemed content to sit out the ride in silence. "Ugh."

"Have you ever tried driving at Lovino's place?" Gilbert asked. Kate grimaced slightly, knowing that Lovino was South Italy and remembering a trip she took a few years ago, where she spent a few days in Naples.

"No. And I don't intend to. I do have a sense of self-preservation. Contrary to popular belief."

"Is that the place were you said traffic lights were decoration?" Star asked, looking at the traffic as well. She remembered Kate talking about her trip to Naples not long afterwards, when she had told her about their driving habits.

Gilbert started laughing at that one, and Kate grimaced. "The traffic lights and the road signs and the lines and dear God I had never been more afraid for my life, like, ever."

Star grinned in amusement as well while the generals both sat in silence. She guessed it was because they were both nervous about the car. "I wonder how anyone gets around there without getting killed."

They finally made it to the mall, and Kate began to search for a parking place in the garage. Gilbert replied for her. "I don't know, but the Italians seem to been immune to death-by-moped."

"Alright." Star shrugged. "I'm just glad it isn't like that here. I wouldn't want to attempt to drive anywhere like that."

"Got you!" Kate exclaimed, cheerfully pulling into the only available spot in what seemed like mines. "Everybody, move out!"

"It's going to be mobbed inside..." Star said, watching Armistead try to figure out how to open the door for a moment. But she wasn't very patient and leaned over him to push it open. "There you go, Lo."

He glanced at her, then got out of the car, Star following him and Hancock right behind her.

"I can breathe!" Prussia exclaimed, stretching once he escaped the vehicle. "That car was not nearly big enough for my awesomeness!" His comment caused Kate to break into a coughing fit, but he didn't seem to notice.

Recovering, Kate said, "All right. So, we have the money... Star, how about you take the Generals down to Sears, and I'll go see what I can get with the gift cards and stuff?"

"We're splitting up?" Star asked, surprised at the thought. She had thought that they were going to stay together.

Kate shrugged. "We'll be able to get everything faster that way," she explained. "Plus, I know the Generals don't really count, but you and I still look young enough that the security people would get really suspicious about us, especially if we're hanging around in a group."

Matthew nodded. "It sounds like a good plan," he said.

Star shrugged and glanced at the generals. "Alright. Let's go then."

Kate gave Star half of her funds, and then took off towards Hot Topic, explaining her plan to the two Nations. They would get basically the bare minimum of clothes they needed on account of not having much money. That meant two extra shirts, a pair of pants, and - she blushed slightly - other... important clothes. The Hot Topic gift card was enough to buy some clothes for Prussia, two shirts with sarcastic writing on them and a dark pair of jeans. There wasn't anything that Canada would wear, so they went off to the other stores to get those.

Meanwhile, Star went off into sears with Armistead and Hancock to look at the clothes they had there. Many of the modern clothes, the two generals were not as keen on, and although they didn't seem too thrilled about it, she grabbed a pair of jeans for each of them.

Finding a shirt was interesting. Star tried to talk them into trying a t-shirt, but neither of them wanted one, so they settled on a collared shirt for each of them, one's that weren't all that dressy, but still nice enough to suit the generals. And to make them feel more comfortable with the new shirt, she grabbed one gray one, and one blue one. That way they could dress in the color of their uniforms.

"We'll need to get you each a pair of shoes too," Star said, glancing down at their feet, "Something that isn't boots."

Together, the three of them went to the shoes and looked them over before settling on a pair of sneakers for each of them, even though Hancock and Armistead had no idea what they were, she had them each try a pair on, until they were sure of the right size. Then she grabbed a package of socks and added it to the small pile of clothes. "We're almost done."

After a few more minutes, they were able to gather other necessary items and they paid for it before leaving the store and looking around. "I'm not sure where we're supposed to meet Kate and the countries..." Star said after a moment, glancing at the generals.

Kate headed towards Sears, with Canada and Prussia following behind her. Somehow, she had a feeling that it would take Star and the generals much longer to get clothes than it had taken her - maybe because the generals weren't even familiar with the time they were in.

Seeing her friend coming towards them then, Star grinned and headed towards her, with the generals behind her. "Good, I was worrying about how we would find you again."

Kate grinned at her friend, and at the slightly confused expressions on the generals' faces. It seemed to have become their default expression since arriving in the twenty-first century. "Are we all set?" She asked. "It's starting to get a bit late."

Gilbert scoffed. "Are you serious? It's not late at all!"

"We're all set," Star said nodding as she shifted the bag she was holding so that she could look at your watch. "And a good thing too, if I don't get back soon, my mom is going to start wondering where I am. What are we going to do for the night?"

"Well, my parents are off on vacation," Kate said slowly, thinking as she spoke, "And I know Grandma always calls before showing up. While your family is still home. So it would probably be best if everyone crashed at my house." They began navigating their way through the parking lot towards Kate's car.

"That makes sense." Star glanced over towards Armistead, not wanting to have to leave him, but knowing that she had no choice. There was no way she could get away with having either one of the generals at her house.

Neither one of them were saying anything, and she knew that they were still confused with everything that had happened that day. Hopefully, if they stayed with them long enough, they would become less confused as time went by.

They dumped the bags of clothing into the trunk, and somehow managed to have no major disasters on the ride home.

When the reached Kate's house and all piled out of the car, Star stood in silence for a moment as she stared at the general's, most of her attention on Armistead. Then she closed the distance between them and latched onto him. "Goodnight Lo, I'll see you again in the morning..."

Kate wrinkled her nose at the blatant display of fangirlism, knowing fully well that she really was in no position to complain. Entering the house along with the Nations and the generals, she said, "All right. First things first." She pointed at the generals. "I didn't want to say anything in front of Star, since she'd probably kill me, but you two stink. Seriously. You already know where one of the bathrooms is. The other one is downstairs. Go shower. Now."

Armistead and Hancock looked at her, then at each other, before Armistead disappeared into the bathroom he'd used to chance earlier. Watching him go, Hancock looked around, not knowing where the downstairs was so that he could locate the other bathroom.

"That door," Kate pointed to the door near the one they had entered the house by. As Hancock left, Canada spoke.

"That was a bit... blunt."

Kate shrugged. "Patience is not exactly my strongest suit... And they did stink."

"So, what are you going to do with us?" Prussia asked, in a tone of voice that led to Kate forcibly willing down a blush.

"The sofa folds out to a bed... and I could set up a few mattresses in the basement. That could work, I think."

Kate enlisted Canada's help in unfolding the sofa bed, while Prussia collapsed on the nearby chair and 'supervised'. In other words, did absolutely nothing. She was beginning to wonder why she was a fangirl over the albino in the first place... Eventually the sofa bed was set up, and she retrieved a few air matresses from the attic.

It was then that Armistead emerged from the bathroom, his hair and beard wet and the same clothes he'd been wearing earlier put back on. He looked at the sofa bed in surprise. "Wasn't that a sofa before....?"

Kate shook her head, taken slightly off-guard by Lo's ignorance of things that she had always considered obvious. "It folds out," she said by way of explanation. "Gilbert, Matthew, could you give me a hand with getting these to the basement?" She added, indicating the air matresses.

Matthew and Gilbert both agreed, albeit with much comments along the lines of "I'm far too awesome do be doing housework," from Gilbert.

Armistead stared at the sofa bed while the two countries helped Kate move the mattresses. He was still confused with all these strange things everyone seemed to have in this time period, things he'd never believed to be possible. Such as the cars, more then anything else. It didn't seem like they was a single horse anywhere in this time, at least none that he'd seen.

The pump that was supposed to inflate the air matresses was stuck. Again. Kate grumbled and kicked it a few times, doing nothing to improve it's functioning. "Son of a-" She cut herself short before she finished the sentence and pried open the casing of the machine.

"Having trouble with that?" Prussia asked, while Matthew simply looked on.

"I'm fine, it's just stuck agai-HEY!" Prussia had simply taken the machine from Kate and fiddled a bit with it. Hitting the power, it turned on and started whirring like it was supposed to.

Prussia handed the now functional pump to Kate. When she stared at him for a minute, he simply said, "Because I'm awesome like that." The girl decided not to argue and went about inflating the mattress

After a time, they were able to get everyone settled down for the night. Hancock finished taking a shower and joined Armistead upstairs, just as surprised by the sofa bed as his friend was. It turned out that they took the sofa bed while the two countries stayed downstairs. And after such an interesting day, it didn't take them very long to all asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

Canada woke up rather early, a habit that he had developed during his colony days and never really stopped. The house was quiet - except for Prussia's snoring from the other air mattress - so he assumed that none of the others had woken up yet. He made his way upstairs to the rest of the house, trying to decide what to do. The girl, Kate, didn't have a very large house, and it wasn't very long before Canada found himself in the kitchen. He looked at the clock - almost 7:00. Canada shrugged and started rummaging around the kitchen for the ingredients to make pancakes.

The sounds of the rummaging woke Armistead, who opened his eyes and sat up, looking around for the source of the sound and realizing that it came from the next room. He got up from the sofa bed, trying not to wake Hancock, but doing so all the same.

"Lo? What are you doing?" The younger general asked.

Armistead shrugged, nodded towards the kitchen. "I'm going to see what's going on."

Sitting up, Hancock glanced towards the other room, also shrugged. "Alright, I'll come with you."

Both of them stood up and went into the kitchen, watching Canada in silence from the doorway for a moment.

Canada looked up, having a feeling that he was being watched. "Oh, hello," He said to the two generals, still a bit uncertain about them. After all, they clearly weren't from any reality that was recent in time to this one. And their uniforms had looked suspiciously familiar, although he couldn't quite put his finger on it. "I'm just making breakfast... You don't mind pancakes, right?"

"Not at all," Hancock replied, "Perhaps there is something I can do to help?"

Canada smiled. "Absolutely!" He checked the griddle resting on the stovetop - it should be hot enough by now. Spooning some of the pancake batter onto the griddle, he said, "Could you keep an eye on these and flip them when they need it?"

Hancock nodded and headed towards the griddle, glancing towards Armistead who followed him into the kitchen when he realized that before he could make pancakes, he needed to make a quick run to the bathroom. "Lo, keep an eye on them for a minute," he said, before leaving the room once again.

For a moment, Armistead stared at the pancakes, noticing something next to the griddle that appeared to be what one would flip the pancakes with. He picked it up and looked at it for a moment. While he had never made pancakes before, it looked familiar and so he stuck it under one of the pancakes and started to flip it over.

As soon as Armistead started to flip it, the pancake started to fall apart, then fall back to the griddle, splattering pancake mix all over the counter, the floor, himself (mostly on his face and beard) and Canada who was standing not too far away.

Canada hesitated for a moment, before glancing over at the embarrassed-looking general. After a slightly awkward moment, he laughed lightly. "You tried flipping it too early," he said simply, before grabbing a towel to clean up the mess. Kate's dog was busy eating the mix that had fallen on the floor, while Kumajiro just stared at the scene with an expression that bordered on amusement.

Kate wandered into the kitchen, woken up by the sounds of people walking around the house. She was still in her pajamas and her hair was a total mess, and she looked a bit out of it as she stared at the scene before her. "...Whatever. Need caffeine," She said after a long pause.

Armistead looked at the mass of pancake mix that was now a large lump on the griddle, then at the mix that was in his beard. Wonderful, just how he needed to start the morning...

"Sorry," he said after a moment, "I didn't know..."

Kate gently pushed Canada out of her way as she went to get a mug from the cabinet. "You might want to wash your face," she muttered as she filled the mug with water before dropping a teabag into it and putting it into the microwave.

Armistead glanced towards Kate. Her suggestion was a good idea, considering that he was wearing pancake batter all over his face. He went to the sink and turned on the water, sticking his face into it. It was at this moment that Hancock walked back into the room and stared at the scene in front of him. "Lo... what are you doing?"

"He got pancaked," Kate grumbled, staring at the time on the microwave. When there were fifteen seconds left, she lost patience and yanked the microwave door open and took her tea. Trusting Matthew to handle whatever came next, she sat at the counter and watched, trying to wake up.

Matthew paused in mixing batter and flipped the slightly mutated pancake. "It's all right," he said in his usual mild voice. "I jumped to conclusions."

When Armistead looked up, his beard dripping wet but at least minus the pancake, he glanced at the other three. "You jumped to conclusions?" he asked, "How so?"

Hancock paused, then entered the room, approaching the griddle as he figured out what had happened. "I thought you knew how to make pancakes, Lo..."

Canada shook his head. "I'm sorry," he apologized, mostly on principle. He glanced at the clock. Not very much time had passed since he had started cooking, so Prussia was probably still sleeping. It was interesting that someone who had been so militaristic was so reluctant to wake up early. "Um, Mr... Armistead is it? Gilbert's still asleep. He'll probably sleep through breakfast if left on his own."

Kate shrugged and put down her now half-empty teacup. "This could be interesting," she mumbled, deciding to go help wake up the Kingdom of Prussia. She smiled to herself, mentally added an 'awesome' before the title.

"I take it you want me to wake him up?" Armistead asked, glancing in the direction the countries had gone to sleep the night before. It made sense for him to do that after he'd made a mess with the pancakes. He wasn't much of a cook, although he did know how to make hardtack. That was a given being a general during the Civil War. He was used to living off of hardtack and other foods that could last for a while without spoiling.

Canada nodded, and Kate laughed. "Why do I have a feeling this is going to be great?" She asked to nobody in particular. After a brief hesitation, she added, "Um, Matt? Gilbert's not going to try to kill us for waking him up, right?"

Matthew shook his head. "No, he's not very violent when he's tired. Although he might start swearing at you."

Kate shrugged. "I can handle that."

Armistead smiled faintly. "Alright," he said, turning towards Kate. He didn't know the way around the house very well, and so he decided that he was going to follow her. It was better that way.

"This way!" Kate directed the General, bounding across the room and down the staris. She figured that Gilbert would either be woken up by the noise she made, which would save her some trouble, or he was a heavy sleeper, which could be amusing. Reaching the area of the basement that she had set up the two air mattresses in, it appeared that the latter case was true. Prussia was asleep, flat on his back, and snoring loudly. Kate had to cover her mouth with her hand to restrain a giggle.

Following Kate more slowly, Armistead moved to her side and watched Prussia for a moment. "He appears to be a sound sleeper."

Kate nodded slightly, knowing that she was grinning like a fool. Poking Gilbert's forehead yielded no real response, just a vaguely waved hand and some mumbling in German. Staring at Prussia, Kate tried to think of ways to force the former nation to rejoin the world of the living.

An idea hit her. It would quite possibly count as cruel and unusual punishment, but it also was practically guaranteed to wake up Prussia, if the comics had shown him accurately. Leaning over so she could speak in his ear, she adopted a slightly menacing tone and said, "Jó reggelt, Prussia..."

It worked. The albino screamed in what Kate noted was most certainly not an awesome way and fell off the mattress in his panic. His expression caused Kate to start laughing hysterically, leaning against the wall for support.

"Wha- bu- WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!" Gilbert eventually screamed.

Not having any idea what Kate had said, since he didn't speak German, Armistead stood off to the side, watching with slight amusement, although he was certain that whatever had been said, was not very nice. But at least it had done the job, for Prussia was certainly awake.

"Good morning, Gilbert," Armistead said, deciding that he would use the human name instead of the country name. It was still strange to think of these people as countries.

Thoroughly annoyed, Prussia glared at Kate and Armistead. "That was a low trick," he muttered. And then something else occurred to him. "Wait. You speak Hungarian?!"

Kate shrugged. "I didn't mention it?" she asked, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Admittedly, it was rather mean of her to do that, but she wouldn't admit it out loud. "Whatever. Canada's taken over the kitchen. He's making pancakes."

"Pancakes!" Gilbert shouted, charging up the stairs. Apparently any anger - or fatigue - at being woken up didn't stand a chance against the promise of food.

Armistead watched him go, before looking over towards Kate. "I thought that was German," he stated. A part of him wanted to ask what it meant, but he decided against it. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know what it meant.

Kate shook her head. "Nah, it was Hungarian. My grandmother taught me a few phrases." She started up the stairs again, motioning for the General to follow her. "And I couldn't really think of another way to get him to wake up quickly."

"What did it mean?" Armistead asked, deciding to ask anyway, even though he'd decided against it a moment before. He was curious as he followed Kate back up the stairs.

Looking back at the General, Kate could see that he thought that her comment had been less than polite. Laughing slightly at the assumption, she said, "It meant 'Good morning', actually. It's more that I was speaking Hungarian that freaked him out like that."

"What do you mean the pancakes aren't done yet?!" Gilbert shouted.

Canada glared back at him with a rarely-found intensity. "I meant what I said!" He snapped, voice still quiet. "You can wait for a few minutes."

Armistead paused for a moment when he heard the shout, just at the top of the stairs. "He's rather demanding, isn't he?"

Kate laughed slightly. "Only a little bit." Reaching the kitchen, she had to restrain herself from laughing outright at Gilbert, sitting at the counter with what could only be defined as a pout. "Everything going well, here?" She asked.

"You told me there would be food," Gilbert muttered, like a sullen child.

"Yes. Will. Future tense."

Smiling faintly upon that comment, Armistead watched the progress in the kitchen as Hancock turned to look at him and Kate. "I can see that you succeeded in getting him up," he stated, glancing towards Prussia then. "Your name is Gilbert, right?"

Prussia nodded. "Yeah, Gilbert Beilshmidt. Or Prussia. But if you call me East, I will punch your face in. Not even West can call me that."

Hancock stared at him for a moment. "Prussia is a country, you can't possibly be a country," he said, "And who's West?"

Canada glanced up at Hancock in surprise, while Prussia just hung his head. "Way to kill the awesome. Seriously. You still don't get it? Really?"

"Ah... West is Germany," Kate clarified, cutting in. "His brother."

"Germany and Prussia are countries," Hancock stated, "Not people. It's impossible."

Armistead watched him in silence for a moment. "A few days ago I would have said that coming forward years into the future was impossible too. But that happened. So they could very well be who they say they are. Even though it's crazy, I believe them, Win."

Hancock stared at him. "You have lost your mind, Lo. It's impossible."

Prussia groaned in frustration. "That's it. I give up. You just totally ruined the awesome that is the almighty Kingdom of Prussia. Seriously. You're even more of a pain than... Whatever. Are those pancakes done yet?"

"Not yet," Canada said, smiling a bit at the scene. If someone didn't want to believe that they were nations, it wasn't his problem.

Prussia grumbled something in German under his breath.

Armistead looked at Hancock for a moment, then shrugged. There was no reason why the two couldn't be the countries they said they were. After all, so many strange things were happening lately. "Is Star going to join us again?" he asked after a moment, remembering the other girl who had been clinging to him the day before.

"Oh, right! Star!" Kate exclaimed, having previously been distracted by Prussia's antics. "Good point. I should probably call her." Passing Prussia on the way to the phone, she poked him. "Don't let your ego get too injured," she told him, slightly mockingly.

Prussia made a '_hmmph_' noise. Kate shrugged and picked up the phone, dialing her friend's number. "Okay, everyone, could you be quiet? Because I don't think she's really awake yet and I really don't want to think about what her brother might think if he heard you guys in the background in case he answers..."

"We can be quiet," Armistead said, glancing at Hancock who also nodded.

Kate trusted Canada to be quiet - really, it was practically impossible for him to be loud - and Prussia was too busy recovering from a bruised ego to really say anything. Holding the phone against her ear, she leaned against the wall and counted the number of rings under her breath. "Three... Four..."

"Hello?" The voice of Star's younger brother came through the phone. He was the only one up at the house, seeing as he was more of a morning person then the rest of them, especially Star.

Kate was sorely tempted to bash her head against the wall. _Murphy's law strikes again_, she mentally griped. Out loud, she said, "Oh, hey Brian. Is Star up?"

"No," he answered, "She's still sleeping. Who is this?"

Kate rolled her eyes. "It's Kate. You know, the crazy girl who lives down the street?" She shook her head, ignoring the others in the kitchen listening in on the conversation. "Anyway. Could you go wake Star up? Tell her that my kitchen is apparently property of Canada, and she's invited over for pancakes."

"But she's still sleeping," he insisted, "And what are you talking about? She usually makes pancakes at home for breakfast..."

"Yeah, but it's nice to have pancakes when you didn't have to make them yourself," Kate attempted to reason. "And I know she's sleeping. Wake her up. Please?"

For a moment there was silence. "But I can't wake her up; she never gets up this early. Why does she have to come over now? She was over at your house yesterday."

"Hold on a second," Kate said, before pulling the phone away from her head and bashing her head against the wall. "Stubborn, idiotic little..." She grumbled, but quietly so she couldn't be heard over the phone. Putting the device back to her ear, she continued, "Fine. Just tell her that my kitchen is property of Canada when she wakes up, okay?"

"What does that mean?" He asked, clearly confused as to what Kate was talking about.

"It's... an inside joke. She'll get it." Kate replied, after a moment's hesitation.

"Okay," Star's brother agreed before hanging up the phone.

Kate hung up the phone before yelling in frustration. "How does she even live with that idiot!" She shouted to nobody in particular.

"That didn't go well, did it?" Armistead asked, having heard Kate's side of the conversation.

Kate shook her head. "No, not really."

"I'm guessing you find her brother a bit irritating?" Canada asked, clearly amused.

"You have no idea," Kate replied. "He's stubborn, hopelessly naive, and always convinced that he's right about..." She trailed off, noticing Canada's expression. "Actually, you probably understand a lot better than I do."

Prussia laughed. "You just insulted your own country!"

"It's not an insult if it's true," Kate shot back. "...I think."

"So, she isn't coming over then?" Hancock asked. He wasn't entirely sure what they were talking about, but he had picked up something from what he had heard while Kate was on the phone.

"Not for a while, at least," Kate admitted. "Star's not exactly a morning person."

"Pancakes are done," Canada mentioned.

"So is she like Gilbert in that sense?" Armistead asked, looking slightly amused.

"Hey!" Prussia sounded a bit offended. "I'm perfectly fine with waking up early! Unless I don't have to." He brightened up. "I heard someone mention pancakes!"

"I'm right here..." Canada mumbled.

"I know, I'm just messing with you," Prussia replied.

Armistead shrugged. "I wasn't trying to offend you..." he said, glancing towards the pancakes. It was better food then he'd had in a long time. Living off of army food wasn't exactly the tastiest food around.

Kate took the hint, and started rummaging around in the kitchen cabinets and drawers for enough plates and utensils. "Help yourselves," She vaguely directed. "Just leave enough for Star once she shows up." Prussia immediately went to take more than just a few pancakes.

"Hey, you got any syrup?" The albino asked.

Kate looked in the cabinet, rummaging around for some syrup. "Eh... only the fake stuff. If that's okay?" She turned back to the others to see their responses. Prussia shrugged and took the bottle. Canada made a slight face, but said that he was fine with it.

Picking up a plate, Armistead selected a few pancakes. "I haven't had food like this in a while," he said, glancing towards Canada. "Thank you, Matthew. I'm sorry for dropping the other pancake earlier too."

Kate decided to wait until everyone else had taken pancakes before she did, so she hovered out of the way.

Matthew smiled. "It's nothing, really." After a moment's pause, he added, "I've seen a lot worse, anyway. Especially that time Arthur insisted on helping make breakfast."

Kate blinked. "The mind boggles at the possibilities," she commented, getting a laugh from Canada. Prussia looked a bit disturbed at the idea of England's cooking. Word got around, apparently.

"Who's Arthur?" Armistead asked, glancing towards Hancock, who was remaining silent, then looking back towards Canada. He was interested in getting to know these other people, or nations, whoever they were.

"England," Kate, Prussia, and Matthew all answered at once.

Behind him, Armistead heard Hancock say under this breath, "Countries can't be people..." But he ignored his friend and nodded. He was trying to make sense of the world that Canada and Prussia came from.

Eventually, everyone got their pancakes, although Prussia was roughly halfway through his helping before Kate sat down at the counter. She had to admit, it was definitely a good thing that Canada had gotten his cooking skills from France and not England...


	7. Chapter 7

Star ran down the street, slowly slightly near the bottom of the hill to keep herself from falling over in her hurry to get to her friends house. She had just waken up about ten minutes before, dived into the first clothes she could get her hands on (her Lo t-shirt) and ran out the door when her brother had told her Kate had called hours ago. She had wanted to ask why he had waited almost three hours for her to wake up, but had been in too much of a hurry. She hadn't even answered his question about what the message meant. It wasn't his business to know.

Reaching her friends house at least, she rang the doorbell and then tried to start catching her breath.

Prussia answered the door, having already lost the game of scrabble that Kate had started to kill time. "Hey Star!" He greeted cheerfully, as if it was his house and not Kate's.

"Hi Gilbert!" Star said eagerly, still trying to catch her breath. "Sorry that it took me so long to get here, I just woke up nearly ten minutes ago and my brother told me you guys were making pancakes, or that Matthew was anyway... So I ran down here as soon as I could. I'm actually surprised my brother remembered to give me the message. But I'm here now. What did I miss?"

Prussia stepped aside so Star could walk into the house. "Eh, Matthew made pancakes so we ate breakfast - there's still some for you if you want to microwave them or something. And then Kate took over cleaning up, which I'm not going to complain about but Matthew did for some reason, and now they're playing Scrabble."

Star grinned and stepped into the house. "Alright, I'll warm some of the pancakes up then." She started to head towards the kitchen before she turned around and looked back at Prussia. "Hey, Gilbert, can I ask you something?"

Prussia raised an eyebrow. "Eh, what the hell. Ask away."

"Do you think that Ludwig will forgive me for saying that Lo and I are Italy's siblings?" She asked. Germany was her favorite Hetalia character, and if she was going to see him again, she really didn't want him to be upset with her.

Prussia seemed a bit surprised at the question. "I don't know," He finally answered. "I know he doesn't like looking like an idiot, but he probably will. He's a pretty forgiving guy. I mean, he has to be to put up with Italy for any length of time." After a slight pause, he added, "But don't tell West I said that, okay?"

"Okay," Star agreed, "I won't."

She headed into the kitchen to get the pancakes and warm them up before coming back into the other room where everyone else was. "Good morning Lo," she said, grinning in his direction.

Kate looked up from the game board. "Good morning, sunshine," she commented sarcastically. Matthew looked up from the game and nodded in greeting, then went back to shuffling letters around his tile holder.

"Good morning," Star said in return, starting to eat the pancakes she had brought in from the kitchen as she started to watch the game. "Did you all miss me this morning?"

Kate laughed. "Honestly, I did wish you were there," She said. "Prussia is very amusing when he gets woken up."

"I resent that," Prussia muttered. Canada smiled before placing a few tiles on the board.

Star smiled, looking over towards Prussia. "Don't worry Gilbert, we all know how awesome you are, no matter how hard it is to wake you up."

Looking back towards the game then, she watched the generals, who seemed to be too busy concentrating on the game to join in the conversation.

Gilbert smiled at her comment, although it seemed to be more from amusement than anything. He watched the game as well, wondering if the two generals were going to say anything.

"Kate, I don't think that 'naw' is a real word," Matthew said quietly.

"Tch, fine," Kate muttered, taking back her tiles and rethinking her move.

Star watched as Kate completed her move, then as Armistead laid down his pieces on the game board. "You learned how to play then?" she asked.

Armistead looked up at her. "Yes, the rules were explained to us. It wasn't very hard to learn."

Prussia smirked. "Of course not. Alfred invented it, after all." Canada glared at him. "…Sorry…" Kate laughed.

For a moment Star was silent. "What are we going to do, today?" She asked. "We could go back and visit Gettysburg again!"

Kate shrugged. "Fine by me," She replied. "After all, I did drag you away from there pretty quickly."

"I know!" Prussia jumped in, apparently recovered from the Canadian Glare of Doom. "Party at Canada's place!"

"What?!" Canada asked, surprised. "…Oh, all right. I guess." After all, it couldn't be any worse than America's Christmas parties, right?

"Let's do both," Star said, eager at the chance to go back to the battlefield, and then go back to Hetalia. Both ideas sounded like they would be fun to do. She glanced towards the generals, "What do you think?"

"I'll go along with what you're doing," Armistead said.

Hancock looked up for a moment, actually taking his attention from the game, "If we go back to Gettysburg, can I stay there? This place is too strange."

"No!" Star protested. Kate resisted the urge to facepalm.

"If we go back to Gettysburg," she started, "Then we're taking some food with us. Seriously. I think I'd almost rather have Eng- um, Arthur's cooking than 1860's military food. Ew."

Prussia and Canada both stared at her. "I don't really think you would," Canada started.

"I said almost!"

"Don't worry, even I wouldn't want to eat the food from that time period," Star said, "I might be obsessed with that time period but you're right, the army food was disgusting."

"Government foood…" Kate interjected with a mock-spooky voice.

"It wasn't really that bad," Armistead started to say but Star shook her head.

"Old, moldy hardtack, bacon that has been carried around way to long, and bugs in everything," she said, "I consider that bad."

Kate winced at the description. "Okay, I think we get it. So. Um."

Star shrugged. "We just have to bring our own food, and then we'll be fine."

Hancock crossed his arms as he watched them, in a worse mood then he generally was. "I want to go back to my time period and _stay_ there."

Prussia walked over to Hancock and rested an arm on his head. "You are really stubborn, aren't you?"

"You're one to talk," Kate muttered. Canada just watched in mild amusement.

"I'm a Nation. I'm allowed to be." Prussia countered.

Kate just stared at him. "You know, I could say something horribly cruel right now, but I think I'll be a nice person and just not say anything."

Hancock glared at him and pulled himself away. "Get off of me, and stop saying you're a nation. It's impossible, I've already said that. All of this is impossible."

"You _still_ don't believe it?" Star asked.

"No."

Prussia blinked, and then grinned widely. "You know what?" He asked, although it was clear he would keep talking even if nobody responded. Which he did. "This guy here is reminding me of someone…"

Kate looked at Hancock, tilting her head slightly. "Hmm. I'm thinking either Germany or Austria. Maybe a bit of England? No, definitely not England. More like America."

"I was thinking Austria, actually," Prussia replied, completely ignoring the annoyed glare that Hancock sent him.

"But there's no Hungary around to cause death-by-frying-pan." Kate said, grinning at the situation. "Unless you count Star, but she's not that violent."

"Exactly!" Prussia grinned.

"I am certainly not at all like that," Star said, "Can we go to Gettysburg now?"

She grinned in the direction of the generals. "Cheer up, Win, and try to believe us. They really are nations, we're being serious. It is possible."

"It's impossible," Hancock repeated. "Just take me home."

Kate stood up. "Well, we need to get some food. Like Star was saying… Yeah. Ew. Again." She went into her room and grabbed a backpack, then went to the kitchen. Matthew followed her, apparently wanting to help. "Eh… I'm too lazy to actually make food," she called back, rummaging through the cabinets for whatever she could toss into the backpack. Pretzels, potato chips, popcorn… "Hey," She called back into the room. "Did you know that they make cheeseburger-flavored potato chips? I totally didn't know that! It's awesome!"

Canada stared at her. "You know," he started quietly, "I almost forgot you were American for a minute…"

Kate laughed. "Yeah, the stereotypes are true."

"I've never had cheeseburger-flavored potato chips, though," Star said, speaking from the other room, "I'm not sure exactly what I would think of them. I do like cheeseburgers though. But I don't eat nearly as many as Alfred though."

"I don't think any human could," Kate responded, looking towards her friend's general direction. "His stomach is practically a black hole, I swear…" Canada laughed. Kate grinned. Even though the Generals didn't seem to be that happy about being with the two girls – not her problem – she was glad that she had somehow gotten Canada to be a lot more outgoing and talkative than he was in Hetalia. Maybe it was because nobody really forgot he existed…

Wait a minute…

"Where's Kumajirou?" Kate asked, looking around. Go figure. She didn't forget that Canada existed, just his bear.

Canada looked around as well, looking a bit worried that his bear had apparently disappeared. "Um… I don't think this is good…"

Star heard the discussion from the kitchen and stood up, walking into the doorway. "The bear's missing?" she asked, "Well… he has to be somewhere in the house, doesn't he?"

Canada shook his head. "He figured out doorknobs a while ago…" He mumbled. Prussia walked up behind Star.

"Kuma's missing?" He asked, sounding worried. Kate nodded. "That's it! I will be awesome and help find the bear!"

Kate blinked in surprise, staring at Prussia. Then, leaning over to Canada, she asked quietly, "Am I going insane, or did Prussia just volunteer for something?"

"He likes that bear for some reason," Canada just replied. "It's a bit like it is with his bird." Kate nodded.

"Well… Where do you think the bear would be?" Star asked, after having glanced in surprise at Prussia volunteering to help look for him. "I haven't seen him since I got here."

While the debate about the location of the bear continued in the kitchen, Kumajirou waddled into the living room from some unknown location. Sitting next to Hancock, he looked up at the general and asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm General Hancock," he said, staring at the bear in surprise. He couldn't get used to the fact that the bear could talk. "Don't you remember me from yesterday?"

Armistead just watched him in amusement.

The bear blinked sleepily – apparently it had been taking a nap in one of the other rooms – and batted the general with a paw. "Funny," it said.

"Funny?" Hancock asked, "What's funny?"

"You," Kumajirou replied. At that point, Prussia and Canada walked back into the room. Prussia stopped and stared at the bear for a moment, wondering how he had gotten there without anyone noticing. The bear looked towards the two nations.

"Who are you?" He asked Canada, completely ignoring Prussia.

Canada sighed, used to that discussion. "Canada. The guy who feeds you."

"You feed him and he doesn't remember you?" Armistead asked, looking up at Canada.

Canada just shrugged in response, walking over and picking up the bear. "Don't go wandering off like that again, okay?" He told it.

"Worried?" The bear asked.

"Of course we were!" Prussia cut in, petting the bear on the head.

"…Who?"

Armistead glanced at Hancock, amused by the situation, while his friend still didn't appear to be in a better mood. "Cheer up, Win," he said, "Isn't it nice to be away from all that fighting for a little while. Here we don't have to worry about being enemies, or facing each other across the battlefield. Here we can just be friends."

"It isn't that," Hancock replied, "I'm glad to see you, Lo, of course I am. But this place… it's too strange and everyone here is crazy. I miss our home."

"I'm not crazy!" Kate said, walking into the room with Star, carrying her backpack. She stopped for a moment, rethinking that statement. "Okay, I'm crazy. But it's the cool sort of crazy and not the run-someone-through-with-a-chainsaw-if-I-don't-like-them crazy, at least." She shook her head. "Never mind. We have food."

"Food?" Kumajirou asked, looking at the backpack. Kate looked at the bear, then smiled and gave it a large pretzel. Canada smiled as the bear munched happily on the snack.

While from his expression, it was clear that Hancock still thought they all were crazy, he didn't say anything. "Why don't we leave now?" Star suggested, "And spend some time in 1863. Then when we're done there we can go have that party at Canada's house."

Kate shrugged. "Fine by me… I think. As long as you don't drop us in the middle of a battle again, okay? I mean, that's nuts even by my standards…" She chose not to mention that she had originally considered kidnapping Russia instead of Canada and Prussia. For a start, she really didn't want to deal with Prussia's reaction to that news, and also, nobody had to know that. Really. She reached into the backpack and tossed the Thingy to Star. "You know I'd end up messing up and dropping us into 1812 or something."

Canada grinned at the mention of 1812, while Prussia winced. Kate blinked, and then smiled sheepishly. She had remembered about Canada burning down the White House in 1812, but she had forgotten about the other side of the world. When Napoleon's army had pretty much been decimated by Russian forces. And most of that army was actually Prussian. Whoops.

"Right," Star said catching the Thingy and putting it onto her arm. "No landing in the middle of the battle. Got it. Now, everyone grab onto me and we'll be on our way."

Armistead and Hancock both stood up and went over to her and Star grabbed both of their shoulders. Kate looped one arm around Star's shoulders and the other around Canada's. Canada kept holding the Kumajirou, and Prussia just put his hand on top of Kate's head. "You know," Kate commented, "We should really make sure that we don't take anyone else with us this time. It's getting a bit awkward."

"Right," Star said, nodding as she thought about where she was going to take all of them. This time, she pictured an empty field, the Confederate forces still lined up waiting to make the fatal attack. She wouldn't land them in the field during the battle, but before the major fighting started. But she forgot one thing, the cannon bombardment before the attack.


	8. Chapter 8

When they landed in the field, Kate looked around at the situation. There were soldiers lined up on one side of the field, with a huge number of cannons. She let go of her friend's shoulders and buried her face in her palm. There was no way that they had been able to arrive there unnoticed, there were too many people there.

Prussia looked around as well. "Um, Star?" he asked, "Could you promise me something?"

"It depends on what it is," Star said, letting go of the generals shoulders.

BOOM! A cannonball sailed over their heads, landing near the stone wall on the opposite side of the field.

Prussia winced at the sound of cannon fire, although he knew that they were in relatively safe range – a bit too far for the cannonballs to land directly on them. At least, most of the cannonballs. "Never join the military. Any military."

"What say we get out of here before we get our heads blasted off, huh?" Kate asked, over the sound of yet more cannons firing. She grabbed her friend's arm, taking back the Thingy. Prussia got the hint as she put it on her own arm, and so did Canada. The two nations put a hand on her shoulders.

Also getting the idea, Star linked one arm through Armistead and then grabbed on Hancock, then Prussia, attaching themselves all together once more so that they could get off the middle of the battlefield. Kate teleported them as soon as was possible without leaving anyone behind. They landed behind the Confederate lines, far enough away that hopefully nobody noticed them. Although it would be impossible, really. Someone must have noticed six people and a small bear suddenly appear in the middle of the battlefield.

"I think I'm with Prussia on this one," Kate muttered. "Your planning skills. They fail."

"You told me not to land us in the middle of the battle," Star said, "It's before the attack, so I followed your instructions."

"Right," Kate replied, her voice oozing sarcasm. "Silly me for assuming that you would be able to guess that 'the battle' also means 'the battlefield right before everyone starts shooting at each other'."

"Loud," Kumajirou said helpfully, trying to block his ears from the boom of the cannons. Canada shifted his grip so the bear had a better chance of doing so.

Star peered through the trees. "We can't even see anything from back here. This could be the chance of a lifetime to see if all the records of how the battle played out are correct! And you pulled us all the way back here."

Prussia stared at her in complete bewilderment. "War isn't a spectator sport, kid," He finally snapped. Kate shifted back slightly. It wasn't often that Prussia was actually angry, but it seemed that Star had somehow managed it.

"I'm sorry," Star said, staring back at him, "I know that it isn't a sport. I know a lot about this time period, this battle and I understand that, perfectly. This war tore apart friendships, and families."

She glanced towards Armistead and Hancock then. "Their friendship is proof of that. This war was hard on everyone."

Prussia laughed, a bit coldly. "You are just… You know, all of us had some war like that. That's what war _is_." He crossed his arms and glared at her. "If you think this is bad, maybe you should ask Antonio about _his_ civil war. Or Francis about his revolutions. They didn't even have distinct battle lines. Everyone just went and killed each other."

Kate winced and leaned closer to Canada, who finally spoke up. "That's enough, Prussia. She's just a kid. You don't have to get that blunt about it."

"It's alright," Star said softly, glancing at Canada, then back towards Prussia. "I'm sorry Gilbert, I shouldn't have said that. The war that I know is what is written about in history books. I've never actually seen it, and I shouldn't have said that I wanted to. There's a lot I don't know."

Prussia just shrugged. "Whatever. Matthew's right, anyway. You're just a kid…"

Kate detached herself from Matthew's arm – when had she done that? – and looked towards Prussia. She had been a fan of him partly because of history. Prussia had been one seriously militaristic nation, and it showed when he got angry. After a moment's hesitation, she went over and hugged him, blushing furiously.

"What?!" Prussia cried at the girl's sudden appearance. Kate backed off almost instantly.

"Heh… sorry…"

Star was silent for a moment as she watched them, then glanced towards Armistead and Hancock who were still saying nothing. "The battle is going to be going on for a while longer," she said, "Hours, and then after that… It was a difficult battle, especially for the Confederates. While I'd like to meet some of the other people here, I guess now isn't a very good time, is it? I shouldn't have brought us here during one of the major battles in the war if I wanted to have the chance to talk to some of the others."

Canada shrugged. "I just remember that Alfred was a wreck around this time…" He said.

Kate laughed slightly, although it was a bit mean for her to be amused by her friend's embarrassment. "Well, shit happens," she admitted. "But I really don't want to be sitting around for a few hours while the battle goes on. What say we jump forward a few hours?"

Prussia grinned, back to his normal egotistically cheerful mood again. "That will probably throw me off for the rest of the day, but why the hell not?"

Star just shrugged, staring off into the trees in the direction of the Confederate lines. She wasn't really sure what to say at first, as she turned her head towards her friend, and the nations. "It isn't really that important," she said, "I shouldn't have wanted to come here in the first place."

Kate walked over and slapped Star lightly upside the head. "Bad Star!" She said, in a jokingly scolding voice. "You don't have to be afraid of Prussia! He doesn't exist anymore!"

"It's 1863," Prussia interrupted, grinning. "I do now."

Kate walked over to Prussia and did the same joking slap. "Bad Prussia! Don't scare my friends!" Prussia frowned, but grinned once he realized she wasn't being completely serious.

"It's not that he's scaring me," Star said, "It's just that what he said… he was right. Being here just because I admire some of the people… They're going through a lot right now, a lot that I will never understand."

From behind here, where the generals were, she heard Hancock's voice. "Even if you don't want to stay here anymore… do you think I can go back to my lines…?"

"No!" Kate snapped back to Hancock. "You might run into yourself. And that would be weird. Plus I really don't want to accidentally break history."

Canada smiled, but it seemed a little more tense than usual. Then again, he did know America and how badly he was doing during this time…

Star looked at Hancock for a moment. She really didn't want him to go back, she'd rather that he stayed but she felt it would be cruel then if she forced him to. "We could use the Thingy," she said, "Skip ahead a few hours and drop Win off at his lines."

She looked towards Armistead then. "Will you stay with us, Lo?"

For a moment, Armistead was silent as he thought about it. True, all of them seemed to be a little crazy, but it was also interesting to be there, so he nodded. "I'll stay, for a little while. As long as you eventually bring me back here."

Kate shrugged. "That works, I guess…" Then a thought hit her. "But once we get to the party at Canada's place, don't you dare suggest that we kidnap anyone else, okay? Because if we both kept going like that, we'd end up with a few continents following us around."

"But!" Star stared at her friend. "If Win's leaving, then I'll have one person and you'll have two. I'm going to kidnap Ludwig!"

"WOAH!" Prussia shouted. "Back up a minute!" He pointed an accusing finger at Star. "If you know us as well as we think of you, then you should already know two things! First, West is a complete killjoy." Kate laughed, knowing that Prussia was right. "He's no fun at all. Seriously. And second, it's impossible to just kidnap him. Because if you kidnap West, then Italy _will_ find a way to go with you. Even if it means mailing himself over in a cardboard box!"

Star paused for a moment. Of course she knew that it was true, but still. "I like Ludwig though…" she said, "I don't find him completely boring!"

Kate interrupted this time. "Star, if we both went off and kidnapped everyone we liked, we'd be dragging along three quarters of the planet. Probably." She glanced over to Canada. "Actually, Matthew, can I ask you something?"

"Well, you just did, but sure," Canada replied, smiling slightly.

"Yeah, about that party at your place…" Kate started, "Russia's not invited, okay? He's too creepy and I honestly don't want to be anywhere near a place where Russia and Prussia are in the same building." She decided to not mention that she would spend the entire party stalking Russia if he _was_ invited. Some things were just best left unsaid.

Prussia cursed under his breath in German, and Kate was pretty sure that she heard 'Russland' in there somewhere. She knew that Prussia hated Russia, and with good reason.

"But Ludwig is invited, right?" Star asked.

Prussia laughed. "Of course he is! I wouldn't go to a party without inviting my favorite brother, now would I?"

"He's your only brother," Kate muttered.

"And anyway, Feli's a pretty cool guy, but he wouldn't go to a party if West wasn't invited," Prussia finished.

Star laughed slightly. "Of course he wouldn't. He hardly goes anywhere without him."

"Understatement of the century," Kate replied, grinning. She looked over to the Generals. "Aren't either of you going to talk, or are you just going to stand there?"

"I don't know what you are talking about," Armistead said, "Or who you're talking about. So I don't have anything to add."

Hancock nodded. "Me neither… and I really just want to go back to my lines."

Kate grinned. "Well, about who we're talking about… Feli is Feliciano is Italy. Ludwig is Germany, and we already explained the whole 'West' thing, and Hancock still doesn't believe us about that. Antonio is Spain, Francis is France, and Russia is a bit psychotic."

"You're right," Hancock said, "I don't believe you."

Star shrugged. By this point, she was almost 100 percent sure that he never was going to. "Why don't we just take, Win back?" She suggested, "Then we can go have a party."

Kate raised an eyebrow. "So you've actually changed your mind about meeting people?" She asked, honestly surprised. She looked back towards Prussia. "Congratulations! You've actually managed to get Star to change her mind about something. You have _no_ idea how impossible that is."

Prussia grinned. "Well, maybe it's because I'm awesome like that?"

"Or because you're terrifying when you're angry," Canada mumbled.

"I'm not that bad, am I?" Prussia asked.

"No…" Star said, hesitating for a moment. "It's just that what you said, well, it made me see reason. This is a war, I shouldn't want to be hanging around here. And anyway, going back to Hetalia sounds like a lot of fun too."

Kate shook her head in amazement. "I can't believe you actually changed your mind," she said, sounding almost like Hancock did with his refusal to believe that the Nations were… well, nations. "Time jump, then?" she asked.

"We jump forward a few hours in time," Star said, "To when the charge is over. Then we take Win back to his lines and head off to the party."

"Okay then," Kate replied. When everyone was ready, she concentrated on being in the exact same spot, but a few hours ahead.

…It was a bit odd, the way the cannon fire suddenly stopped and the sun jumped across the sky.

"So…" Star looked around, "Do you know where the Union lines are Katie, or should I take us there?"

"Hey, we have time," Kate replied. "Why don't we just walk?" She paused. "Er, nevermind. Just realized that there'd be dead people all over. Dead people are only cool in zombie form…"

Star nodded. "Yeah, I really don't think we want to walk there. Especially when the battle was Pickett's Charge, which was a complete bloodbath."

Kate shook her head. "Worst battle plan ever, I swear…" She tossed the Thingy to Star. "You get us there."

"Okay." Star caught the Thingy and put it on. "Alright, everyone. Let's go."

Hancock gladly grabbed onto Star's arm, Armistead beside him. Kate and the two Nations also grabbed onto Star. Within seconds, they were just behind the stone wall, which had provided a slight shelter from bullets for the men crutched within it. Bodies littered the surrounding area, both blue and gray, and some Union soldiers were rounding up those Confederate soldiers that were still alive, taking them prisoner.

"We're there," Star said, looking around, and then glancing towards Hancock. "It was good seeing you, Win."

"I noticed…" Kate said quietly in response to Star's first comment. She looked around, feeling a bit ill, and eventually leaned against Canada.

Prussia looked around. "I've seen worse," he said offhandedly, and Kate frowned at him.

"Of course you've seen worse," she commented. "I'm guessing internal organs were spread around a lot more before guns were invented."

Prussia glanced at her. "Yeah, actually, they were."

"Ew." A large white paw batting her arm caught Kate's attention.

"Cuddle?" Kumajirou asked. Kate nodded, and Canada handed the bear over.

"Thanks…" She mumbled, snuggling the bear.

Star didn't pay any attention to what they were saying as she watched Hancock turn to leave, Armistead beside her. "Win…" he said, his voice soft and the Union general turned back to look at them again.

"What is it, Lo?"

Armistead was silent for a moment. "I don't think we're going to see each other again for a while… Just remember, that no matter, you will always be like a brother to me."

"Of course," Hancock said, "I would never think otherwise."

And then he turned once more, started to walk across the ground towards where Star knew the Union headquarters would be. Star and Armistead watched him go, standing side by side and then hearing a comment off in the distance. "G-General Hancock? Why are you dressed like that?"

Kate looked over to Star and the remaining general. It took a moment to gather her nerves – dead bodies… - but eventually, she managed to say, "Well. That was a bit anticlimactic."

When Hancock was out of view down the battlefield, Star and Armistead came back to join Kate and the two nations. "Well…" Star said, "He's gone. I don't think I'm ever going to see him again either. But I'll have the memories at least…"

Prussia snickered. "Do you have any idea how cheesy that sounded?" He asked. Kate buried her head into Kumajirou's fur in frustration.

"No." Star shook her head. "But I don't really care. I look up to some of these people from this time period."

She looked around the battlefield, then back at Armistead, glad that he was alive, and in one piece. True, this time in history he still would have been alive, but he also would have had a bullet wound in his chest. They had kept that from happening and she was actually spending a lot of time with him. And if she got to see Ludwig at the party, it would get even better!

"All right then," Kate said, cheerful again. "To Canada!" Glancing at Canada, she corrected herself. "Or, to Canada's house." She hesitated again. "But Canada's house would be in Canada… I'm confused now."

"It's best to not think about it too much," Canada offered, sounding amused.

"Okay, whatever."

Star smiled. "Well, let's go then. I want to get to talk with Ludwig and tell him that I'm sorry for that thing yesterday where I said I was Sicily…"

She took off the Thingy and tossed it to Kate. "Your turn to take us. Because I trust you more to bring us to the right place in this case."

Kate laughed. "Nice." Waiting for everyone to be ready, she concentrate on Canada and his house… Not an easy task, since he had been ignored for most of the series.

"Home," Kumajirou said. Kate breathed a sigh of relief. She had actually managed it.


	9. Chapter 9

When they reached Canada's house, Star looked around, then glanced over at Armistead who was the doing the very same thing. Then she grinned. "Great! We're here."

Canada smiled slightly, not used to having so many people in his house at once. "Well… it won't do much good to stand around, right?" He asked.

Prussia answered for the group. "Of course not!" He shouted. "We must prepare for what is to be the most awesome party of all time, because I am NOT going to let Matthew sit around and host a lame party while I'm here!"

Kate stared at the two of them. Canada shrugged.

Star continued to grin, amused by Prussia. "How can I help?" She asked, looking around the house some more, eager for the party to start. And if helping them helped the party to start sooner, then she was going to do that.

Canada seemed slightly taken aback by the question, used to a friend who would just go off and take over all the party preparations himself – actually, Prussia had already left the area – and a brother who would just sit around and let him do all the work. He wasn't sure how to react to someone asking to help. "Well… Um…"

Kate looked around. The house was pretty much spotless (which actually made a bit of sense once she thought about it), so offering to clean was a bit beside the point. "How about we figure out decorations?" She offered.

Canada smiled, grateful for the assist. "Yes, that could work."

Ignoring the suggestion completely, Star took off after Prussia, who was on the phone setting up invitations for the party and lounging on the couch like he owned the place. "Gilbert!" she said, hopping onto the couch next to him. "Are you calling Ludwig?!"

Prussia covered the mouthpiece of the phone. "What?" He asked. Then, not bothering to wait for an answer, he turned back to the conversation. "So yeah, Francis. Mattie's place in a few hours. And tell Antonio while you're at it, okay?"

"Are you going to call Ludwig?" Star asked, getting from the part of the conversation that she'd heard that he was talking to France, and not Germany.

Prussia stared at the girl for a minute. "As I seem to remember," He said, a highly sarcastic tone entering his voice, "You managed to convince dear West that you were related to Italy. And then you didn't seem to happy when you ran into him and the awesome me. And now you want him to show up?" He started dialing another number into the phone, again not waiting for a response.

"Yes…" Star said, nodding. "I knew that he was upset then after he realized Lo and I weren't related to Italy. And I really didn't want to see him when he was upset at what we did. But you think enough time has passed now that he won't be angry at us right? Because I want to talk to him and spend time with him!"

Prussia gave Star an odd look. "You're sounding just like Italy." Putting the phone up to his ear, he said, "Hey, West! You're going to a party later." After a brief pause, he said, "Yes, you are. Because I told you to. It's at Canada's place in a few hours." Another pause. "CANADA. You know, the guy who makes the awesome pancakes?" Pause. "Fine, then I'll tell Italy that you didn't want to go to a party with him." This pause, there was a smirk on Prussia's face. Apparently he had won. "Great. What? OF COURSE I'M BACK, YOU IDIOT!"

Star grinned when she heard that, listening to Prussia talk to his brother. "Are you going to tell him what happened?" She asked, "And when's Ludwig going to show up?!"

Prussia didn't notice Star's comment, too busy flinging insults in German down the line. Eventually, he seemed to grow tired of it, and settled with, "Ugh. Fine. Oh, and bring Gilbird with you, okay? I kinda miss the little guy."

"Can I say hi to him?" Star asked eagerly, staring at Prussia as he continued to talk to his brother.

"Hmm? Oh, that? That's just the crazy girl who said she was Italy's sister or whatever. You get used to her eventually. Okay, now I have to go tell other people about the party. And if you don't show up, I'll send Francis after you or something."

"Please?" Star asked, "Can I say hello…?"

She wanted to get to talk to Germany, and wasn't patient enough to wait for the party to begin in a few hours, although she doubted that she was actually going to get the phone.

She was right. Prussia hung up the phone, and then stared at the keypad again. "Hmm… I've got Francis and Antonio and West, and if they're going then that means that Feliciano's going to be there. And there's no way Antonio would go anywhere without Romano." Completely ignoring Star, he stared into space for a moment before another idea struck. "Aha!" He started dialing another number.

"Are you going to invite Alfred?" Star asked. Seeing that it was Canada's house they were having the party at, it made sense for America to be there.

"Hey, England, party at Canada's house in a few hours. Be there or be even less awesome than you normally are, okay? Good." After he hung up on that extremely short conversation, he glanced over at Star. "…Actually, that might be a good idea. I don't think Matt would be too happy if I didn't invite his brother." With that statement, he called America. "America! It's Prussia. Party at Mattie's place, okay? A few hours. Just show up whenever. Okay. Bye."

Star just listened to the conversations while Prussia continued to call the other nations.

--

Meanwhile, in the other room, Canada had enlisted Kate and Armistead to help set up speakers. Armistead, however, was just staring at them, not having any idea what he was supposed to be doing. "What are these things?" He asked.

Canada glanced back at Armistead. Of course he wouldn't know what they were, he wasn't from the right time for that. "They're just speakers. They… make certain sounds louder?" he tried for an explanation.

"Red wire goes to the red thingy, right?" Kate asked from behind one of the larger speakers.

"…Yes."

The explanation from Canada just made Armistead more confused, and he stared blankly at the speakers. "Maybe I should just let you two set them up?" He suggested. "Where did Star go? Maybe I could help with whatever she's doing?"

"Knowing Star, she's probably just pestering Prussia to let her talk to Germany or something. Crazy woman," Kate muttered, trying to untangle a clump of wires.

"Why does she want to talk to Germany?" Armistead asked, remembering when he'd met the nation when they'd come to get Canada. He couldn't understand how Star hadn't really wanted to talk to him then all of sudden seemed to want to talk to him.

Kate finally managed to untangle the wires, with Canada's help. "Because… is this blue or purple?"

"It's blue," Canada said, somewhat amused. "There are no purple wires."

"I could have sworn it was purple. Why are these things so complicated again?" Kate then remembered herself. "Oh, right. It's because Star is a rabid fangirl that makes me look normal in most situations by comparison. I can only think of…" Kate trailed off, counting something silently on her fingers. "Three people that would make me fangirl to the point where she looks normal."

Armistead was silent for a moment, giving up on being any sort of help with the speakers. "How many people does she fangirl at?"

The speaker Kate was working on suddenly blared with the high-pitched whine of feedback. "I FIXED IT!" She shouted over the noise, turning it off immediately. Canada winced at the sudden noise.

Kate frowned, considering Armistead's question despite the distractions. "Um. I'm not exactly sure. Two, maybe three." Kate shrugged. "As opposed to me. I fangirl at far too many people, and I figure that evens out the fan-obsessiveness to a reasonable level for each one. So I don't flip out completely…"

"Then…" Armistead thought for a moment. "I'm one of them, aren't I?"

Canada, who had been watching the conversation with some amusement, looked towards Kate as she grinned embarrassedly. "Yeah… pretty much." Then a thought seemed to hit the girl, and she turned toward Canada with almost frightening speed. "Oy, Matt!"

Canada blinked in surprise. "…Yes?"

"I know Russia's kind of your friend and everything, but…" she trailed off uncertainly. "He's not going to show up, right?

"I think Prussia's taken over the invitations," Canada answered, confused about the sudden question. "And I probably wouldn't invite him as long as Prussia's here, anyway. They really don't get along."

Armistead just watched them, not knowing what else to say, then shrugged and turned from the room and walked off in the direction that he'd seen Star take off in earlier, coming into the room where Prussia was on the phone. He paused in the doorway, watching in silence for a moment.

It didn't take Star very long to notice him and she grinned. "Lo! Hi!"

He smiled faintly and stepped into the room, sitting down beside Star on the opposite end of the couch as Prussia. "Star, I was just talking with Kate. Do you know why she doesn't want Russia to come to the party?"

Star stared at him blankly for a moment. "She doesn't want Russia to come to the party?" She said, slightly surprised. "But she's a Russia fangirl…"

"WHAT?!" Gilbert said, completely interrupting his current telephone conversation. "Sorry, Japan, have to go. Tell China and Korea about the party for me, okay? Thanks." He slammed the receiver back into the cradle with slightly more violence than was necessary and turned on Star. "What did you just say?!"

"I said…" Star paused for a moment, realizing what she had said and who she was talking to. "Um… Pretend you didn't hear that, Gilbert."

Armistead didn't say anything, taken by surprise by Prussia's reaction and not having any idea what was going on.

Red eyes narrowed in what could only be described as 'pure fury'. "You were talking about Kate, right?"

Star stared at him for a moment, suddenly concerned for her friend's safety. "Well…" There wasn't anything to do about it, she'd already said something that she shouldn't have said when Prussia was in the room. "Yes…"

Prussia immediately stormed out of the room, followed by a curious Armistead and a worried Star. When Kate looked up and noticed him standing in the doorway of the room she and Canada had been working in, she squeaked. "…Canada shield!" she called out, grabbing Canada and hiding behind him.

Something had pissed Prussia off, and Kate could sense that she was at the receiving end of it. She just wasn't sure what had happened.

"Gilbert…" Star said from behind him, although she wasn't sure that he was going to listen to her. "Just forget about it…"

"What was it that I heard about you being a fan of Russia?" Gilbert shouted, causing Kate to squeak again and cower further behind Canada. "Russia? Seriously? He's insane! He's a total sociopath!"

Canada was a bit confused, but at the same time concerned for Kate's safety. "Gilbert. Stop it."

"How the hell could you be a fan of Russia? That's just wrong!" Prussia continued to shout, eventually slipping into German and sparing Kate from understanding his rants. She did turn an interesting shade of red in the process, though.

"Gilbert!" Star shouted this time to get his attention and came into the room. "There's nothing wrong with being a fan of someone. I'm a fan of Ludwig!"

"That's completely different! West might have a stick shoved up his ass but he's still reasonable!"

"I blame PunPuniChu!" Kate shouted, bringing all speech to a complete halt as everyone stared at her. "Well. It got you all to shut up, at least."

Star stared at her, unsure of what to say for a moment. "…Who's PunPuniChu?"

Kate glanced at Star. "Remember that artist girl who you kept saying scares the crap out of you? Yeah. Her." Looking back at Prussia, she continued. "Actually, that's not the reason why I like Russia…" She trailed off, turning an even deeper shade of red.

"Then why the hell do you?" Prussia demanded, patience wearing thin.

"It's just that Russia kind of looks like someone I know…" Kate trailed off. "It's just that he looks like… Jeez, this is embarrassing."

"It's Pierre, isn't it?" Star asked.

Kate squeaked again, this time from embarrassment. "Shut up! Damn Frenchie."

Prussia looked confused. "So, you say Russia looks like a guy that you know who's French? That's just weird."

Kate shrugged. "What can I say. I like really tall blond guys."

Star glanced towards Armistead who was still standing in the doorway, assuming that the general had no idea what they were talking about based on the confused expression on his face. "Prussia and Russia don't get along very well, Lo," she said, trying to explain.

Prussia scoffed. "That's an understatement."

"I don't have issues, I don't have issues, I don't have issues," Kate was mumbling to herself.

Star shrugged, glancing around at the speakers which had been completely set up. "So… are we almost ready for the party?"

"Ah, I should probably make some food…" Canada mumbled, apparently just as eager to change the conversation as Star was. The sooner they got past that… interesting revelation about Kate, the less awkward the party would be.


	10. Chapter 10

Star sat by the door, her elbow resting on the arm of the chair she was sitting in and resting her head on her hand. She was waiting, seeing that they were all ready for the party to begin. "Aren't people going to show up soon?" She asked, starting to feel impatient. She wanted to see Germany.

Canada looked over towards Prussia. "When did you tell everyone that the party would start?"

The albino shrugged. "Eh, I didn't really give them a specific time." He was relaxing comfortably in another chair, killing time before the party guests arrived.

"That's the problem," Star said, "Why couldn't you have said two hours, instead of just saying a few?"

"Star," Kate said warningly. "You're too tense."

Almost as if on cue, Matthew's front door blew open, accompanied with a shout of, "DO NOT WORRY! THE HERO HAS ARRIVED!"

Star jumped in surprise at the sudden voice, then grinned as she saw America, although as soon as she'd heard him, she'd known who it was. "Hi, Alfred!" She greeted. At least someone was there, even if Ludwig wasn't there yet.

Alfred F. Jones, otherwise known as the United States of America, gave Star a quizzical look. "Do I know you?" He asked. All questions were forgotten, however, when he saw his brother. "Hey, Matthew!" He called, pulling the quieter nation into a tight hug.

A smiled crossed Star's face. "No, we've never met before, Alfred. I'm Star."

She nodded towards Armistead who was sitting a little ways away. "And this is Lo Armistead. We're visiting here."

Alfred frowned slightly at Armistead, completely certain that he'd heard the name before.

Kate decided to distract him before he remembered exactly who Armistead was. "Hey, my name's Kate," she quickly introduced herself. "Sorry there's nothing much going on. You're the first one who showed up."

Star nodded. "Yeah. But hopefully the others are going to be right behind you," she said, turning her attention towards the door as she continued her watch for Germany.

Alfred glanced toward Matthew in confusion, but his brother only shrugged. "Whatever," he eventually decided. "Where's the food?" He walked confidently into the kitchen, giving Prussia a nod of recognition.

For a moment, Star glanced in his direction, watching him go into the kitchen. Of course that would be the first place America would head. But she didn't really care all that much, started to stare at the door again. "Ludwig will be here soon, right Gilbert?"

Prussia shrugged. "I guess, if Feli manages to talk him into actually showing up." Canada went off to try to keep America from eating all the food before the party actually started. Kate just leaned back against the wall.

"I hope he does," Star said. She wasn't really sure what else to say, or do, just hoped that everyone else would be there soon.

"You did talk to him earlier, Gilbert, didn't he say he was going to come then after a little while?"

"Yeah," Prussia admitted, "But he probably just said that to get me to shut up. He does that sometimes."

A knock at the door indicated yet another arrival to the party. Kate went to answer it, since Prussia didn't seem inclined to move.

"Ah, who are you, aru?" China walked into the room as Kate stood aside, followed by Japan and Korea.

"Um. My name is Kate," Kate nervously introduced herself. There was something a bit unnerving about being in the presence of a ntion who had been alive for over four thousand years.

Star glanced at the new arrival, not really caring that much when she saw it wasn't Germany. "Hi," she said, taking off her glasses for a moment to try and clean a smudge from them. "I'm Star."

"It is a pleasure to meet you," Japan said, bowing politely to both Star and Kate. Kate found herself smiling - it was nice to know how someone was going to be. Korea had vanished into the house, calling something about 'delicious food that originated in Korea'.

Kate tried to ignore the look China gave her and Star, curious but not really showing what he was thinking.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Kiku," Star said, grinning for a moment in Japan's direction before looking back towards the door.

Armistead watched them, not knowing who any of them where. "Hello," he said, a little nervous as he assumed that they were all countries too. "I'm Lo."

Kiku seemed a bit taken aback. He had not told them his name, and he was pretty sure that he had never met them before, so how did they know his name? Then again, they were clearly friends of Canada-san, so he might have told them his name. But he was still thrown off by how casual all these Westerners seemed to be. "Ah, it is an honor to meet you too."

"Do you know if Ludwig is going to be coming soon, Japan?" Star asked, her mind going back to the person she was waiting for.

"Ah... I am sorry, I do not know."

Kate had wandered into the kitchen, and was watching with some amusement as Canada desperately tried to keep everything together while America was wandering around and eating pretty much everything and Korea was randomly declaring that things originated in Korea.

"That's alright." Star said, staring at the door again. "Hopefully he'll show up soon."

Meanwhile, Armistead decided to get up and he walked into the kitchen, watching those there with slight interest. "Are you going to save some food for later?" he asked, looking towards America.

"Of course I am!" America answered with a grin through a mouthful of cookie. China had also wandered into the kitchen, only to be accosted by an overenthusiastic Korea. Kate couldn't help but grin at the scene that was growing more chaotic with each passing second, despite Canada's best efforts.

Armistead continued to watch him. "Don't you think you should save some of it?" he asked, "And who are you?"

He guessed that he was a country of some sorts, although he didn't know which person was which country. Thinking of them as being countries was weird too.

Alfred looked at Armistead with a curious expression. "I didn't introduce myself? Sorry! I'm Alfred F. Jones, the most awesome person you will ever meet!"

"I resent that," Prussia said from his spot in the doorframe, having decided to not miss any of the fun.

Armistead looked from one to another. "You're a country, right?" he asked Alfred, wishing that he could understand this strange place better then he did.

That comment cause all of the nations to fall silent, staring at Armistead. America looked downright shocked. Korea just looked confused. Japan seemed horribly embarrassed. China just looked intrigued. It had been clear that the man wasn't a nation, and neither were the two girls. Humans weren't supposed to know about the nations, so how did they...?

"Eh, yes, they knew about that," Canada said, voice going almost completely inaudible.

When everyone just stared at him, Armistead wasn't sure what to say, stared back. What had he said that had caused this reaction?

Kate shifted closer to Prussia, feeling a bit uncomfortable under the scrutiny of the other nations. Of course Armistead wouldn't know about how bad of an idea it would be to just basically announce that they knew about the nations being... well, nations. But it was still awkward.

America was the first to recover. "Well, I'm the United States of America, of course!"

Armistead still felt uncomfortable, even more uncomfortable when he realized that he was speaking to America, his country, or at least what had been his country before the outbreak of the Civil War and the being of the Confederate States of America. "Is the Confederacy going to be coming too?" he asked, under the impression that the CSA existed as a nation like all of the others.

That was the wrong thing to say. America's expression immediately darkened, and most of the other nations flinched back as he stormed out of the room. Kate and the nations stared after him as they heard footsteps echo through the house and the distant slamming of the door.

"Did... I say something wrong?" Armistead asked in shock as he watched America leave.

He hadn't been planning to upset the other nation, and didn't quite understand the others reaction.

The Asian nations and Prussia looked at each other, not quite sure of the details, but knowing that Armistead had somehow hit a sore point. Canada walked over to the general, and gently told him that it was probably not a good idea to mention that time period to America.

Armistead stared at him for a moment. "I won't. Does that mean that the Confederacy will not be coming to the party?"

"There is no Confederacy," Canada said, quietly. Japan had vanished, presumably to find and talk to America.

The expression on Armistead's face turned into shock as he just stood there and stared at Canada. No Confederacy? Then what did that mean about the outcome of the war?

He wasn't sure what to say, turned quickly and left the room, wanting to have time to be alone. He passed where Star was still sitting near the door watching for Germany and found a room where he could be alone to think.

"Well..." Kate said, trying to break the awkward silence that had fallen. "Um."

It was at this moment that there was another knock on the door. Since all of the others were either in the kitchen, or had gone off somewhere, Star jumped up to open it, grinning when she saw who was in the doorway. "Ludwig!" She said happily, completely ignoring Italy as she pounced on him. "I'm sorry for what I said when we last met. I know that I'm not Italy's sister but you'll forgive me, right?"

"Ve? What?" Italy was completely confused by this girl who had suddenly jumped on his best friend. "Wait, you're Star, right?"

Germany had not been expecting someone to jump on him before he had even gotten into the house. "Get off!" He said and since Star didn't want to get him mad at her, she quickly listened to him and stepped back, making room so that the other two nations could step inside the house.

She grinned at Italy. "Yup, I'm Star. Hi, Italy."

Prussia heard a familiar, irritated voice and had left the kitchen to investigate. "Hey, West!" He called, trying to pull his brother into a noogie and failing rather miserably. Instead of admitting this taint on his awesomeness, he turned to Italy instead. "Feli! How's it going?"

"Ve, I'm doing great!"

"Hello, Gilbert," Germany said, looking over at Star who stood a few feet away, grinning as she stared at him, clearly very excited about his arrival, before looking back towards his brother. "How long have you been back?"

Prussia stopped bothering Italy for a minute. "Um. Two hours or so? I wasn't counting."

Kate, eager to investigate whatever was happening in the entry hall and escape the awkward atmosphere in the kitchen, wandered over. "Oh, hey Germany." She said, not really being a major fan of the character. He was all right, just nowhere near her favorite. "Italy! Hey!"

"Who are you?" Italy asked the new girl, pretty sure that he'd never gotten her name.

Kate walked over and hugged the brunette. "My name's Kate. I'm a friend of Star. But slightly less crazy."

"Hey!" Star protested, hearing her friend. "I'm not that crazy."

She glanced over at them for a moment, but then turned her attention back towards Germany and Prussia. "Yeah, we've been back for a little over two hours. I have a watch on." It didn't matter that the watch was wrong with all the skipping around in time they'd been doing, because it was still counting down the hours.

Kate rolled her eyes at her friend. "Sure, Star, let's go with that." Turning back to Italy and Germany, she added, "Everyone's lurking in the kitchen for some reason. Except for America, but I'm pretty sure he'll cool down in a little bit."

"I noticed him rush by a little while ago," Star said, turning back towards her friend, Germany saying nothing but just watching all of them. "Lo too. What happened?"

Kate winced. "Don't ask. Really." With an arm around Italy's shoulders (the nation really didn't seem to mind the sudden familiarity), Kate added, "Come on, let's catch up with everyone else."

"I want to talk with Ludwig!" Star said, once again looking at the other nation. "You aren't mad at me about earlier, are you, Ludwig?"

Germany stared at her, not really sure what to say. He was annoyed about it, still didn't have a clue why she was there, or any of her friends, and wanted to know why they had basically kidnapped his brother.

Kate resisted the urge to facepalm. "Okay, Star's being a creeper again," She muttered, starting to walk off towards the kitchen. Italy didn't seem to mind and went with her, although Prussia stayed back. He probably wanted to watch what would happen.

"Japan!" Italy called upon seeing his friend, rushing away from Kate to give the smaller man a hug, much to the Asian nation's embarrassment.

"Eh... Hello, Italy-san."

For a moment after the others left, no one said anything in the other room, before Germany asked, sounding annoyed. "Who are you and why did you kidnap my brother?"

Kate heard Germany's question from the kitchen, and just stuck her head into the hall. "ACTUALLY, THAT WAS MY IDEA," she shouted, then turned back to watch Japan and Italy's slightly dysfunctional conversation.

"So... who exactly are you, aru?" China asked Kate, still intrigued by this strange girl and her friends.

Kate blushed slightly. "Um. It's kind of a long story..."

Star nodded. "Yeah, it was Kate's idea to kidnap Gilbert. Matthew too. I was the one who wanted to get the generals from the battlefield, you know, the man who was with me earlier. He's around here somewhere, although I'm not sure where he went."

Germany continued to stare. "What did your friend want with Gilbert then?"

A grin crossed Star's face. "Because he's awesome, and you're awesome too."

Gilbert snickered slightly. "West? Awesome? What rock have you been living under?"

"I haven't been living under a rock," Star said, grinning still as she went over to Germany and decided to hug him, even though she wasn't sure he'd be very pleased about it. "Both of you are awesome!"

It was at this point that Armistead decided to rejoin the group, having heard the discussion from the room he'd gone off to. He paused when he saw Star, surprised. "Wasn't she just clinging onto me a few hours ago?" He asked.

"Jealous?" Prussia asked the general, grinning broadly, clearly amused by the scene.

Armistead glanced at Prussia for a moment. "No, why would I be?"

Prussia didn't have time to answer. For the second time that evening, the front door burst open, indicating the arrival of yet more party guests. "Bonsoir, everybody!" France called, sweeping into the room with Spain and an extremely irritated Italy Romano. "Ah, la Prusse!"

"Hey, Francis," Prussia greeted cheerfully.

Star let go of Germany when she heard the arrival of the other guests, looked towards them, although none of the new arrivals were any of her favorites. All of her favorites were already there. "Hello," she said to be polite, staying next to Germany. She wanted to talk to him more still.

"Hello," Spain said mildly, an arm around Romano. The latter was busy cursing up a storm in Italian.

Francis flashed his trademark smile at Star, but decided to not do anything. He'd noticed the way she was clinging to Germany, and he wasn't sure if flirting with her would result in injury. The other girl, however, seemed uninterested in the nations. "And who would you be, beauté?" He asked her.

Kate gave France the I-really-don't-care look she had perfected over her life. "Sorry. I'm immune to French."

Star was glad that France had not tried to talk to her, because out of all of the countries, France was her least favorite. She just turned her attention back to Germany, who was being quiet and decided again to try and get an answer. "Ludwig, you do forgive me, right?"

This time he did answer. "Ja, I forgive you. Just don't do it again."

A grin crossed Star's face.


End file.
